JAKARTA, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government plans to impose a levy on carbonated beverages as an effort to control the consumption of the sweetened drink which, if consumed, are believed to negatively impact people's health, local media reported on Wednesday.
Indonesian Finance Ministry's fiscal agency interim head Bambang Brodjonegoro said in Jakarta on Tuesday that consumption of sweetened, carbonated beverages needed to be controlled because of health concerns.
"Based on the report compiled by the National Drug and Food Monitoring Agency, excessive consumption of sweetened, carbonated drinks can damage the kidneys, increase the risk of diabetes, trigger uric acid, disturb the functions of the stomach, liver, intestine and cause obesity," Bambang said, quoted by the Jakarta Post.
He said that the consumption of the drinks should then be imposed using a levy scheme as an instrument.
"Philosophically speaking, imposing a levy on sweetened, carbonated drinks is in line with Law No. 39/2007 on levies," Bambang said.
He added that imposing a levy on carbonated drinks to control excessive consumption was common practice in at least 79 countries, so Indonesia should follow suit.
"Even the U.S., which is the main producer of carbonated drinks, applies a levy on the product," he said.
Another reason considered by the government to impose the levy was the fact that the market share of carbonated sweet drinks in the soft drink industry was still relatively small but yet managed to post a significant amount of sales, according to Bambang.
Based on data from the Association of Soft Drink Manufacturers, sweetened, carbonated drinks accounted for only 3.8 percent of the country's beverage market in 2011, far below bottled water with an 84 percent share.
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