Sugar tax, opening for postponement to 1 July 2025

Postponement of the sugar tax by one year The debut of the tax on sugary drinks would thus only take place on 1 July 2025. Postponing the entry into force of the sugar tax to July 2025. This is the hypothesis that is taking shape and on which the majority and the government are working, seeking a synthesis by taking into consideration the requests that have come from Forza Italia and from companies in the sector. Naturally, this hypothesis is linked to finding the coverage for a further postponement. The failure to postpone the sugar tax with the government's amendment to the Superbonus decree had immediately caused an uproar.

The Executive's choice, according to the text of the deposited regulation, was to postpone (for the seventh time) the plastic tax from 1 July 2024 to 1 July 2026, while for the sugar tax the chosen path was that of a soft entry into force from 1 July 2024. The hypothesis, which was brought before the Senate Finance Committee, was to apply it for the first two years with a levy of EUR 5 per hectolitre for finished products and EUR 0.13 per kilogram for products prepared for use after dilution. As of 1 July 2016, it would revert to the 'full' measure originally envisaged in the 2020 budget (but never entered into force), i.e. EUR 10 per hectolitre and EUR 0.25 per kilogram respectively.

This choice was also supported by the confirmation that came from the Constitutional Court, which at the end of March recognised the reasons for the tax on sugary drinks. But it was the companies in the sector that reminded the government of the devastating impact of the tax's introduction. Assobibe, with president Giangiacomo Pierini, spoke of a 'cold shower after the repeated declarations on not wanting to harass companies and the reassurances given to the sector in recent weeks on the subject' and recalled how 'companies in the sector, 64% of which are SMEs, which produce Made in Italy delicacies such as orangeades, chinottos, citrones, and non-alcoholic aperitifs, would be the only ones to pay with an impact of more than 5,000 jobs, together with the citizens who would have a further price increase on top of the burden generated by inflation'.

Statements that immediately found support in the political world, which since the evening of Saturday, 11 May, has been asking Forza Italia exponents in particular to reconsider the non-extension and to take action to move the starting date. The hypothesis being worked on is that of a shift to 1 July 2025, with the lower levy step drawn by the government amendment from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 and then full application from 1 July 2026.