Calls for fruit and veges to be GST-free

The price of fruit and vegetables is rising.

The Public Health Association wants the GST on fruit and veges to be scrapped.

Chief Executive Gay Keating says the loss to government revenue by removing the tax would be more than made up for by savings in health expenditure in years to come.

She says faced with a bottle of coke much cheaper than a carton of milk, it is not surprising parents are choosing the unhealthy option.

Dr Keating says the epidemics of obesity and type-two diabetes are threatening to overwhelm our health system in a matter of years.

She says it is not just people on low incomes who are struggling to put food on the table, middle income earners are also beginning to buckle under the pressure.

- NEWSTALK ZB