Tobacco Taxation
Tobacco use causes more than 8 million deaths globally each year, with around 80% of the world’s smokers living in low- and middle-income countries. The costs of tobacco are high in terms of the negative impacts on public health and the economy. Increasing taxes on tobacco is the most effective way to reduce tobacco consumption and improve health outcomes, while also raising government revenues. However, as a policy tool, tobacco tax is widely underutilised. This is partly due to lobbying by the industry, which often makes exaggerated and false claims about the potential impacts of increasing taxes. Therefore, rigorous independent research and evidence is needed to inform policymakers in developing countries.
Join our mailing list
Blogs:
The ninth session of the Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (or COP 9) wrapped up on November 13. The discussions saw 161 countries, UN agencies, other intergovernmental organisations and civil society groups consider strategies to implement tobacco control measures more effectively, including taxation, and to stop…
News and events:
For more than 30 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated May 31 as World No Tobacco Day, which aims to inform the public of the danger of using tobacco, the leading preventable cause of death in the world.On this day, we’re pleased to share with you our new website Taxing Tobacco in West…
Research Projects:
See the project’s factsheets on tobacco taxation in West Africa Read the blog summarising key research findings so far. Purpose Africa is vulnerable to the tobacco industry. It has a large and young population, rapid economic growth, a desire to attract foreign investment, and weak tobacco control policies. Although smoking prevalence in many African countries…
Project Outputs
African Tax Administration Paper
Policy Brief
Working Paper
African Tax Administration Paper
This study will provide evidence-based analysis of tobacco taxation in Ghana. The main research theme addressed will be to assess best practices in tobacco taxation centering on the impact of tobacco tax increases on the retail price of tobacco products, tobacco consumption and government tax revenue. We hypothesize that this will provide the evidence needed…
Project Outputs
African Tax Administration Paper
Publications:
Objective To evaluate the common industry claim that higher tobacco taxation leads to higher levels of smuggling, particularly in a limited state capacity setting. Design This paper evaluates the effects of a tobacco tax increase in Sierra Leone on smuggling by using gap analyses. Its models are based on multiple rounds of the Demographic and…
Nigeria is faced with substantial economic and health burdens caused by tobacco smoking. The economic burden of smoking accounts for approximately 1.3 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP. In terms of its health impact, 4.9 per cent of all deaths in 2019 were attributed to smoking related diseases. The thousands of Nigerians that die annually from…
Cigarettes have generally become less affordable over time in developed economies, with increased taxes and low income growth, but more affordable in developing countries, where there have been minimal changes in taxes (Chaloupka et al. 2019). Studies by the WHO suggest that 80% of the world’s smokers live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and…
Partner publications:
West Africa Tobacco Taxation Factsheets
Benin
Burkina Faso
Cape Verde
Cote D'Ivoire
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Liberia
Mali
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Togo
Our partners on this issue
