Record collection for “healthy” taxes

The increase in the so-called “healthy taxes” left an additional 9.2 million pesos in January alone; Almost all of this increase was concentrated in cigarettes, which generated an extra revenue of almost 10 billion pesos, a figure that was offset by other products, such as beers and other alcoholic beverages, according to data from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.

The collection from the special tax on production and services (IEPS), not counting that corresponding to gasoline and diesel, reached 46 thousand 171.6 million pesos, the highest amount on record. This concept includes taxes on cigarettes, alcoholic, energy and flavored drinks, soft drinks, beers, gambling, telecommunications networks, high-calorie foods, video games with violence, carbon and pesticides.

The increase in this tax was one of the central debates in the preparation of the 2026 Economic Package. Before the Treasury presented its proposal to Congress, the soft drinks companies began to lobby and undermine international studies, among them one published under the seal of the World Bank, which recommended taxing more on products that are harmful to health, given the budgetary burden generated by diseases derived from their consumption.

In the presentation of the 2026 Economic Package, last September, the Undersecretary of Revenue, Carlos Lerma Cotera, announced that the increase in the so-called “healthy taxes” would leave an additional collection of more than 40 billion pesos.

The soft drinks companies, led by Coca-Cola Femsa, achieved a last-minute victory: the reduction of the tax on beverages with sweeteners from 3.08 pesos to 1.5 pesos per liter. In theory, this concession should be offset by the tax on serums, with which the calculation of extra collection from “healthy taxes” remains at more than 40 billion pesos by 2026.

January made the first effects of these adjustments evident, and cigarettes became the main target of the “health taxes.” The total IEPS charged on products that are not gasoline or diesel, but could be considered harmful to health and the environment, increased 19.7 percent annually.

Only the proceeds from the sale of cigarettes rose 51.1 percent between January 2025 and the same month of this year, going from 16,975 million pesos to 26,614.9 million, after Congress approved an increase in the rate. to value (depending on value) at 200 percent; In addition, for cigars and other hand-made tobacco, the quota rose from 30.4 to 32 percent. With this, each cigarette pays a fee of 0.8516 cents this year and the rate will increase until 2030 to more than one peso.

In January, these modifications left 9,639.8 million additional pesos and, with this, cigarette smokers paid 57.6 percent of the IEPS collection in “healthy” and environmental taxes.

Among other products affected by the increase in this tax, the collection of betting games increased 12.9 percent, to reach 416.2 million pesos; that of energy and flavoring drinks, 8.6 million pesos, 52.9 percent more than last year, and that of flavored drinks increased 10.1 percent to capture 4 thousand 989.9 million pesos, while the IEPS for violent video games did not generate income.

One of the main questions about the increase in “healthy taxes” was how this extra collection would be monitored and whether it would really finance health programs, since no mechanism was included to track resources.

The Undersecretary of Expenditures, Bertha Gómez Castro, assured on several occasions that this extra collection can be channeled to the Health Fund for Wellbeing, without the need to create a new trust that would make the management of resources more difficult.