KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- An increased rate on sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax is set to be introduced following the effective implementation of a higher rate introduced last year, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said on Tuesday.

The previous implementation of tax has already led to a 9.25 percent reduction in sugary drink consumption nationwide, Dzulkefly said at a press briefing.

"From this statistic, we see that the SSB has been effective at cutting down sugar consumption among the public," he said.

"With another increase to the SSB, we hope to motivate both restaurants and people to be more conservative with their sugar usage," he added.

In 2019, the government introduced tax on sugary drinks, imposing a 0.40 ringgit (about 0.09 U.S. dollars) tax per liter and increasing it to 0.50 ringgit later.

The ministry also proposed the introduction of a nutri-grade system for food and drinks, which will grade a food product with ratings from A to D, depending on a product's sugar content.

The results of the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2023 released in May showed that almost 3.6 million or one in six adults were diabetic.

The survey also found that over half a million Malaysians live with four major non-communicable diseases or conditions, namely diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and obesity. Enditem

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