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.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
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.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
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.
