Zimbabwe's sugar tax review is asking the right question

HARARE, ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe's Parliament is reviewing its sugar-content levy, and the question before lawmakers is the right one: is the tax improving health, or just raising prices?

This week, the Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce heard the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and Delta Corporation call for the 2024 levy to be redesigned with levy-free thresholds, along the lines of Botswana and South Africa's 4g of sugar per 100ml model. The committee is compiling a report for a pre-budget workshop later this month, ahead of the 2027 National Budget.

FCFA welcomes the review. A levy that taxes every gram of sugar the same way punishes reformulation and treats a low-sugar drink the same as a high-sugar one. A threshold model is less blunt: it gives manufacturers a reason to cut sugar and gives consumers lower-sugar options at lower prices.

But a redesign must be built on evidence, not assertions. Parliament should publish what the levy has actually achieved for public health before the Budget locks in a new design. Revenue figures and health outcomes are not the same thing, and consumers should not pay a health tax that cannot show health results.

The 31 December 2026 review deadline gives lawmakers time to get this right. FCFA urges the committee to make the evidence public and to judge any redesign by what it does at the till and for health, not by what it raises.