Mexican Senate rejects lowering tax on sugary drinks by 50 percent

The Mexican Senate approved on Thursday morning certain changes in the country's Federal Revenue Law for the 2016 fiscal year, but rejected lowering a tax on sugary drinks by 50 percent.

The Senate was considering a number of laws, including collecting taxes on rents, on the production of services and on agriculture. However, it voted by a large majority not to reduce by 50 percent the additional tax levied on drinks that contain up to 5 grams of added sugar for each 100 milliliters.

The Senate sided with the argument that these added sugars contain no nutrients and are a major contributor to rapidly rising obesity levels and nontransmissible diseases in Mexico.

Its decisions also impacted on other important sectors, including foreign exchange and oil. While the Senate accepted that the price of gasoline and diesel would continue to be affected by inflationary conditions, it also agreed with the rise of the U.S. dollar against the Mexican peso from 15.9 to 16.4 pesos to the dollar.

Finally, the Senate made an updated estimation that national revenue for 2016 would stand at 4.764 trillion pesos (297.74 billion U.S. dollars), of which the federal government would claim 3.102 trillion pesos (193.9 billion U.S. dollars).

This led to another update being made to predicted GDP growth for 2016, which was set at between 2.6 and 3.6 percent, along with inflation of around 3 percent. Enditem