The sugar tax: healthier choices or just higher prices?
From 3 cents a gram in 2013 to 15 cents today, and from October on biscuits, sweets and jams too. What the tax adds to your basket, what it does to inflation, and whether it works.
In short
Mauritius taxes the sugar inside drinks rather than the drink itself: 15 cents per gram since 20 June 2026, up from 12 cents (June 2025) and 6 cents before that.
From 1 October 2026 the tax extends to sweets, jams, fruit jellies, crystallised fruits, biscuits, waffles, wafers and chewing gum.
On a 1.5-litre soft drink with 10 g of sugar per 100 ml, the tax is about Rs 22.50, or Rs 25.90 with VAT: more than double what it was before June 2025.
The health case is strong: about 1 adult in 5 (20.1% of 20-79 year-olds) lives with diabetes; Mauritius ranks among the countries most affected in the world.
Evidence from Mexico and the UK shows such taxes do reduce purchases and push reformulation, but they also cost low-income families more as a share of their income.
How the tax works
The excise duty is charged per gram of sugar a product contains, whether it is made locally or imported. A drink with less sugar pays less tax, so manufacturers have an incentive to reformulate, and consumers an incentive to switch to lower-sugar versions or water. VAT at 15% is then charged on the price including the excise.
The rate has risen in steps: 3 cents per gram when it was introduced in January 2013, 6 cents from October 2016, 12 cents from June 2025 and 15 cents from 20 June 2026. Products containing no more than 4 g of sugar per 100 g (or 100 ml) are exempt, as are exports.
What it adds to everyday products
Because the tax is per gram, sweet products carry the most. The table shows the tax on common products at each rate, using typical sugar contents (check the label of the product you buy). These are MoBriefs illustrations, not official prices.
What it does to inflation
Excise increases go straight into shelf prices: after the June 2025 doubling, soda and sweetened juice prices rebounded noticeably in Mauritian shops. Because sugary drinks, sweets and biscuits are a small share of the overall consumer basket, the direct effect on headline inflation is modest: a few tenths of a percentage point at most. But it is concentrated: families who buy these products weekly feel it every week.
The October extension arrives at a sensitive moment, with headline inflation at 4.9% in August after three fuel increases. For biscuits and confectionery, manufacturers and importers are expected to pass on part or all of the tax.
The health case
About 218,000 Mauritians aged 20 to 79 live with diabetes: 20.1%. The 2021 national NCD survey found 19.9% of adults aged 25-74 with type 2 diabetes, and nearly one in two adults aged 50 and over affected. More than a third of adults are overweight or obese. Diabetes drives kidney failure, amputations, blindness and heart disease, and absorbs a large share of public health spending.
The tax is one tool among several: it changes prices, but labelling, school food rules and access to healthy food and exercise matter at least as much.
Who pays, and who benefits
The tax changes behaviour only if it changes prices, so someone always pays.