Explainer: how the sugar tax will work
London: "Pull your finger out, Australia," Britain's celebrity chef Jamie Oliver urged, after hearing the UK government would introduce a tax on sugary soft-drinks.
After learning of the Conservative government's surprise move to introduce a sugar levy on soft drinks from 2018, announced on Wednesday, Oliver - a long-time campaigner for a sugar tax - posted an online video and urged other nations including Australia, Canada and Germany to follow suit.
The food revolution is underway. This feels like a victory for Britain's children and for everyone who has campaigned so... 
Posted by      Jamie Oliver on      Wednesday,   March 16, 2016
"Pull your finger out, Australia," Oliver urged. The chef told Britain's Sky News the move came as a complete surprise to him.
"Surprisingly and fascinatingly we've seen [UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George] Osborne come out with a bold, brave tax... I'm shocked but in all the right ways, I'm humbled actually," he said.
"This will travel right around the world, to Canada, to Australia," he predicted.
We did it guys !!we did it !!! A sugar levy on sugary sweetened drinks ...... A profound move that will ripple around the world ....business can not come between our Kids health !! Our kids health comes first ..... Bold, brave , logical and supported by all the right people....now bring on the whole strategy soon to come ... Amazing news #jamieoliver
A photo posted by Jamie Oliver (@jamieoliver) on Mar 16, 2016 at 6:32am PDT
Mr Osborne made the announcement in Wednesday's budget, in which other so-called "sin taxes", including the excise on beer, whiskey and cider, were all frozen.
Mr Osborne said the tax increase, which the government ruled out as recently as   February, was being introduced to improve children's health.
"I am not prepared to look back at my time here in this Parliament, doing this job and say to my children's generation... I'm sorry. We knew there was a problem with sugary drinks. We knew it caused disease. But we ducked the difficult decisions and we did nothing," he told the House of Commons.
The sugar tax will be limited to soft-drinks and not other sugary foods like lollies.
"I think milk could have been bundled in," Oliver said.
  How will the sugar levy work?  
Britain's sugar-levy will begin in 2018 which the government hopes will give manufacturers time to reduce the amount of sugar in their drinks.
Drinks with more than 8 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres will be taxed at a higher rate than drinks with less than 5 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres.
"Pure fruit juices" and milkshakes will not be subject to the sugar-levy.
  Isn't that unfair?  
Expect the soft-drink industry to argue this point given thickshakes, milkshakes, smoothies and juices can all contain a lot of sugar but won't be taxed under this measure.
  Who pays?  
Companies will pay the tax but the government expects some manufacturers will pass on the costs to customers making soft-drinks more expensive, and consumed less.
  How much money will it raise?  
&pound;520 million or more than $1 billion.
The UK government says it will spend the revenue on fitness programs and extended school hours for children so they can take part in more sports.
  Could Australia do this?  
Absolutely. Especially with the growth of the paleo and anti-sugar movement.
Because sugar has no nutritional value and is linked to obesity, it is becoming an easier political target, but politicians are still cautious of going down this road because those on lower incomes tend to eat more sugary foods compared to those on higher incomes.
However, the fact that a conservative government (which decries the "nanny-state") is willing to go down this road shows they think the politics are possibly changing and are at the very least manageable.
A study in 2015 suggested a whopping 85 per cent of Australians would support sugar tax revenue being spent on anti-obesity measures. The research was commissioned by the Obesity Coalition which is calling for a similar tax in Australia.
So while its not currently on the radar in Australia it wouldn't take much for it to be placed back on the agenda.
  Who else has a sugar tax?  
Scandinavian countries, Hungary, Mexico, France, Chile, the Californian city of Berkeley and Dominica.
Many Asian countries are also considering the idea. Interestingly, Denmark introduced a soft drink tax and a fat tax and then repealed them saying they didn't work.
  Does the industry hate this?  
You bet and they cast doubt on the ability of the tax to reduce consumption.
Paul Polman from Unilever, which makes processed foods, has rubbished a sugar tax as too simplistic to solve the obesity crisis which plagues developed countries.
But the manufacturers have also begun to reduce the amount of sugar in their drinks, pre-empting government regulation.
Follow Latika Bourke on Facebook