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Words in the News
Mexican soft drinks tax
09 September 2013
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The Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto, has proposed a higher tax on soft drinks to
help tackle the country's serious obesity problem. Mr Pena Nieto described it as a health
tax for Mexico, which has the second highest rate of obesity in the world.
From Mexico, Will Grant reports.
Promising that the fiscal reform was "good news for Mexicans", President Enrique Pena
Nieto unveiled a wide-ranging proposal which managed to sidestep a political
controversy about sales tax on food and medicine.
Those would remain unchanged, undermining a central part of the left's opposition to
the reform programme. But a hike in the tax on soft drinks was included. In part, the
government hope it will help tackle the country's serious obesity problem. Mexico has the
second-highest obesity rates in the world after the United States.
However, the reform is also intended to deal with Mexico's weak tax revenues. The
country's coffers urgently need bolstering and the intention was that long-running
loopholes, which have allowed large corporations to benefit for decades, would be
closed.
In particular, there were calls to impose greater taxes on the country's top earners,
including the world's richest man, Carlos Slim.
However, the final document appears to have been watered down in that regard. The
proposal must now be approved by Congress and the Senate, as well as a majority of
Mexico's states.
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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Vocabulary and definitions
fiscal related to money, especially taxes
reform a change which aims to improve something
sidestep avoid something difficult
undermining making someone or something less confident or less
likely to succeed
hike sudden and large increase
coffers the money that an organisation has in its bank
accounts
bolstering supporting or improving
loopholes small mistakes in law which allow people to do things
they shouldn't be able to
watered down made weaker
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2013/09/130909_witn_mexico.shtml
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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