Norway’s Ministry of Health is examining a new personal health strategy proposal that could zero-rate value added tax (VAT) on fresh food and vegetables.
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At the same time, sugar-rich foods and beverages, such as breakfast cereals, soft drinks, cakes and confectionery, may be penalised by higher VAT rates.
“The proposal to zero-rate VAT on foods and vegetables has come from the National Council on Nutrition. The ministry is also working on a number of other initiatives that aim to encourage healthier diets by using taxation to both promote the more well-being foods and tax the sugar rich foods and drinks at a higher rate,” said Health Minister Sylvia Brustad.
The National Council on Nutrition (NCN) advocate raising VAT on certain rfoods from 25% to 50%, while reducing VAT on fruit and vegetables from 12.5%t to a zero rating.
The NCN suggests that part, or all, of the additional EUR110m (US$150.4m) that could be raised from doubling VAT on certain sugar rich foods could be used to fund improved diet related marketing and educational programmes at schools and in the workplace.
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By GlobalData“Norwegians need to reassess their personal diets and what they eat. Obesity is a looming problem. The key issue is that we eat much too much sugar and too little fruit, vegetables processed foods like potato chips,” said Haakon Meyer, the NCN’s chairman.
