Executive summary
- Malaysians are consuming sugar at dangerous levels – roughly double the World Health Organisation’s stricter recommendation of 25g/day. Although it is not the sole driver, it remains a major contributor to the country’s unhealthy population. Indeed, Malaysia’s obesity and diabetes mellitus rates are high and rising – recording among the highest prevalence in Southeast Asia in 2022 (Section 1).
- Presently, the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax and Healthier Choice Logo (HCL) are two main policies aimed at reducing sugar consumption. However, there are several weaknesses and gaps – including limited short-term impact, weak price signal, structural flaws, advertising overload and flawed behavioural nudges (Section 3).
- We explore several policy proposals, organised into economic policy approaches and behavioural policy approaches (Section 4).
- On economic policy approaches, reforming the SSB tax and sugar subsidies could increase impacts on sugar consumption (Section 4.1). Policymakers could explore a multi-year phase out of the refined sugar subsidy and restructuring the SSB tax towards an absolute sugar-based tax regime. Additionally, widening the tax scope to cover common sweetened substitutes like mamak drinks will help address substitution towards non- packaged drinks.
- On behavioural approaches, fully utilising “nudges” could be a cheaper measure in the short term to reduce Malaysia’s sugar intake (Section 4.4). To this end, fixing existing information nudges like HCL can finally make the label more accurate and nutritionally holistic. Additionally, designing more tax-salient pricing labels can complement the SSB taxes. Finally, amending the proposed advertising ban and introducing watershed restrictions alongside standardising low sugar levels in mamak beverages could help ensure that sugar regulation extends across all major consumption pathways.
