We've had the Booze Cruise, make way for the Candy Rally
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By Anna-Stina Nykänen
The government has decided (see linked article) to restore the tax on sweets, last in force in 1999, and to broaden the levy imposed on soft drinks.
Apparently the move will bring in much-needed additional revenue of around EUR 100 million.
But have they really thought this one through?
Have they considered the consequences?
What if it sparks a humungous Candy Rally?
In previous years, when taxes have been raised, Finns have hauled home trolley-loads of tax-free liquor from abroad - taking the Booze Cruise route to Estonia.
Now it is the turn of sweets and candies.
What kind of nightmare vision rears up before us?
Old ladies lugging foldable handcarts behind them off the boats from Tallinn or Stockholm, piled high with goodies for the grandchildren.
White vans packed to the roofline with Bassett’s Licorice Allsorts, and the driver swears blind that yes, honest, he’s going to eat them all himself while he watches the football on Canal Plus pay-TV.
Children have already been the salvation of the struggling Sweden ferries.
Now the future of these vessels is guaranteed as families flock there to stock up on cheap fruit pastilles and Marabou chocolate bars.
Have you not seen how enormous are the export-size chocolate ingots that kids are even now struggling to carry off the ships?
When things get really going, what will the chocolate equivalent of the beer “dachshund” be, I wonder? The Chocablock?
When the fever hits and the Candy Rally is in full swing, the ships docking in Helsinki’s South and West Harbours will belch forth crowds of tired, dishevelled sweet-junkies, still out of their heads on a slowly subsiding sugar-rush, with tell-tale brown stains on their lips and clothing.
At eight o’clock in the morning, there will be people with chocolate dribbling from their mouths and licorice pipes on the go.
Yet another reason to feel ashamed of the nation.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.8.2009
More on this subject:
 Tax on sweets takes experts by surprise
Previously in HS International Edition:
Government reaches agreement on VAT cut on food (27.8.2009)
ANNA-STINA NYKÄNEN / Helsingin Sanomat
anna-stina.nykanen@hs.fi
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