The next time the industry laments the sugar tax, pay attention to what it doesn't say.

When your news feed is full of complaints about the sugar tax, a budget speech is probably imminent.

Ahead of Wednesday's mini budget, for instance, the sugar industry published an open letter urging Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and others to scrap the tax or, at the very least, leave it unchanged, as it has been for the past five years.

The sugar tax, or Health Promotion Levy (HPL), is a fee that manufacturers pay for every gram of sugar per 100ml (currently 2.1c). The first four grams are tax-free.

Scrapping or freezing the levy is the least the state can do, the letter argues, since it failed to hold the tax meetings it agreed to as part of the sugar masterplan, a phased rescue operation that governs the industry's switch to sweeteners and biofuels over 10 years.

Godongwana made no mention of the levy this time around, but in March, he announced that 2025 could bring a 10% increase in the sugar tax, which is still short of the 20% rate that public health researchers originally recommended.

The tax hike and the fact that the Treasury, Department of Health and the Congress of South African Trade...