Mexican lawmakers prepare possible tax increases on sugary and alcoholic drinks for 2027 budget

Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies is preparing possible tax adjustments for sugary and alcoholic drinks in the 2027 Economic Package. Several lawmakers have already submitted proposals, according to Carol Antonio Altamirano, chairman of the Finance and Public Credit Commission.

“

We expect that some taxes can be updated, but as part of a responsible package, we feel the effort should focus, as we did last year, on sugary drinks.

Altamirano said some taxes could be updated as part of what he described as a responsible package. He pointed to public health as the main consideration, recalling the approach used for the tax on sugary drinks the previous year.

Asked whether alcoholic beverages would also be included, Altamirano said they would. He referred to alcohol, sugary drinks and sodium as issues lawmakers still needed to discuss. “If we are consistent with how we handled, announced and presented the IEPS on sugary drinks, these are the issues that would remain pending and that we will have to discuss,” he said.

“

Of course, all of them. You have the issue of sodium, and the issue of alcoholic drinks.

Altamirano also sought to distinguish the planned changes from the creation of new taxes. The package, he said, would not alter Mexico’s structural taxes and would not introduce new ones. Updating an existing tax did not make it a new tax, he said, citing the former IETU business tax as an example of a genuinely new levy.

“

There are no new taxes, and the most important structural taxes will not be changed.