Determined to provide Greeks with less and less services in the public health, Greece’s Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis came up with an idea that not only will turn Greeks into “super healthy citizens” but will also increase revenues for the Ministry. The solution is “special tax”, the “sin tax” as the minister called it on unhealthy food containing too much salt and sugar, also products containing alcohol and tobacco.
“The World Health Organization has recommended for Greece also for other countries to introduce a special tax for products that have a lot of salt, a lot of sugar, alcohol, or for tobacco products, that is, for products that are considered unhealthy,” the minister told OPEN TV on Friday morning.
To the WHO recommendation, Georgiadis added the Greek …touch saying ”
“This is a consumption tax that will concern goods that are considered harmful to health with the aim, on the one hand, to reduce the consumption of such products by the population and, on the other hand, to find a source of revenue for the Health system.”
He even threatened to implement the “sin tax” of Greeks’s favorite fast food “Gyros-Pita”.
It is estimated that this particular tax will hit the poorest parts of society, noted news website topontiki.gr, pointing out that the cheapest food on the market is admittedly unhealthy.
In the midst of high prices for food and other essentials the addition of another tax is disastrous for households.
At the same time and generally speaking it is more than clear that when it comes to prevention and improvement of citizens’ health, information and awareness campaigns are preferred to punishment and financial burdens.
και το μοντέλο «κίνητρα-αντικίνητρα» και όχι μόνο τα αντικίνητρα, όπως αντίστοιχη μείωση φόρων σε προϊόντα όπως φρούτα, λαχανικά, κ.λπ.
The model “incentives-disincentives” would work when taxes in fruits, vegetables etc are reduced and not only the disincentives are being implemented.
but not in the neo-liberal logic of the Greek government.
Tell you what !! Instead of penalising people trying to feed their families on (sinful) food that they can afford why not introduce a “CRACKPOT” tax applying to the government..? That should bring the money in ok.!
Twat!!😡