The American Beverage Association and others on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to try to block a soda tax set to take effect in Philadelphia in January.
The beverage industry had spent more than US$10 million fighting the plan before the Philadelphia City Council approved it in June.
The US$0.015 per ounce (28.3g) tax amounts to US$0.18 on a 340g can of soda or US$1.44 on a six-pack of 454g bottles.
Photo: AP
Berkeley, California, has a similar soda tax, while Chicago taxes retail soft drink sales and fountain drinks. However, soda tax proposals have failed in more than 30 cities and states.
The beverage industry groups, restaurants and consumers who sued complain that the tax duplicates the state sales tax already imposed on soda.
Hotel stays in Philadelphia are also taxed by state and city authorities.
However, lawyer Shanin Specter, who filed the soda tax lawsuit, said the city did not get the permission needed from the state to impose a duplicative tax.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney sold the city council on the soda tax by pledging to spend most of the estimated US$90 million in new tax revenue next year to pay for prekindergarten, community schools and recreation centers.
The lawsuit said the tax on both sugary and diet beverages is unfairly based on volume, not price, resulting in a higher tax rate on soda than on more expensive energy or coffee drinks.
“The tax will meaningfully diminish the everyday purchasing power of Philadelphia residents — particularly those on a limited or fixed income — and will put the city’s small businesses that sell soft drinks at a material competitive disadvantage relative to comparable businesses just outside the city’s borders,” the lawsuit said.
Kenney, in a statement on Wednesday, said the tax was levied on beverage distributors, not directly on consumers.
“While it is repugnant that the multibillion-dollar soda industry would try to take away these educational and community programs from the hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians who need them, we were not surprised by their lawsuit given the US$10 million they have already spent opposing the tax,” he said. “I have no doubt we’ll be successful in defeating the lawsuit.”
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in