The industry has claimed that HPL would harm the economy and lead to job losses, but there is no evidence linking SSB taxes to job losses in the beverage industry.
Evidence from the United States, Mexico and South Africa show that SSB taxes do not negatively impact employment. The South African government should not be intimidated by food and beverage industry claims that these policies will harm the economy.
Role players in the sugar industry have reiterated their call for an in-depth socio- economic impact analysis of the sugar tax after the proposed call to double the HPL. The South African Cane Growers Association has called for an immediate decrease to the HPL stating that this will help in the recovery of the local sugar industry and safeguard the one-million jobs that depend on it however; PRICELESS SA conducted an analysis using data from the South Africa Quarterly Labour Force Survey from January 2008 to June 2019, and found that the HPL has not led to reductions in employment in the sectors most likely to be impacted by HPL (beverage manufacturing, food and beverage retail, and food service).