MOSCOW, August 7 (RAPSI) - The Communist parliamentary party plans to introduce a bill to impose a special duty on non-alcoholic drinks with sugar content, specifically Coca-Cola, Izvestia reports this Thursday.

“Amendments could be made to Article 22 “Excise Tax” of the Tax Code. Studies indicate that sugary drinks, for example Coca-Cola, are a major if not the main cause of obesity and related diseases such as cancer, heart attack and other health issues. An excise tax would make sugary drinks more expensive and, therefore, less attractive to consumers. It has been done in many countries and we should employ this practice,” the chief legal advisor of the Communist Party, Vadim Solovyov, said.

Lawmakers may follow Denmark’s example where an extra duty is imposed depending on the sugar content, from $0.10 to $0.28 per liter. Izvestia recalled that in 2011, a similar $0.10 tax was introduced in France on Coca-Cola and other carbonated drinks that brought in an additional 120 million euros a year in tax revenue.

Solovyov admitted that the extra tax on Coca-Cola was also a result of the company’s recent decision to cancel its television advertising on Russian TV due to the sanctions against Russia.

As earlier reported, The Coca-Cola Company stopped advertising on four federal TV channels in Russia (REN-TV, Channel Five, Domashniy and the Defense Ministry’s Zvezda channel) last August calling it a financial decision that was not related to the sanctions. A company representative said the advertising would only run on “key national channels that target Coca-Cola drinkers most efficiently.”