IDRC provided CRES with a $378 grant in June 2013 to promote improving the taxation of tobacco products in West Africa. A one day workshop was organized in February 2014 in Ivory Coast, bringing together parliamentarians from 14 of the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). More infos on the site of CRES about this meeting, but only in French. To get the reports country by country, click on 'documents'.
West Africa has been identified as a new lucrative market by the tobacco industry. Tobacco consumption is on the rise in most of the countries in the region, and consumption among youth is found to be similar to, or even greater than, that observed in adults. Existing evidence shows that tobacco taxation policies, when they make tobacco products less affordable, are one of the most effective tobacco control measures on a national, regional, and global scale.
In action research carried out in 2011-2012, the Consortium pour la recherche économique et sociale (CRES) completed a status report on tobacco taxation policies in the 15 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The results were presented during a special 2012 ECOWAS Commission conference and found that tobacco taxation rates are still low in the region. The conference report states the willingness of ECOWAS and its members to adopt tobacco taxation policies that are more similar to the guidelines that accompany the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The goal of this project is to draft a technical report based on the best existing data that will inform the development of new ECOWAS and West African Economic and Monetary Union directives on tobacco taxation in West Africa. Another objective is to promote intersectoral action through knowledge transfer and exchange workshops involving decision-makers from those public sectors affected by tobacco taxation policies: health, trade, customs, and finance.
| Start Date | 06/14/2013 | ||||||||||
| Duration | 16 month(s) | ||||||||||
| Area Under Study | [Sub-Saharan Africa][Africa][West Africa] | ||||||||||
| Responsible Officer | Geneau, Robert | ||||||||||
| Total Funding | $378,400.00 | Consortium pour la Recherche Économique et Sociale | Institution Website | www.cres-ucad.org | Component Name | CRES | Researcher Name | Pr. Abdoulaye Diagne | Researcher Role | CP-PROJ LEADER | |
Push for higher tobacco taxes in West Africa
For the tobacco industry, West Africa is a lucrative market. Although detrimental to health, tobacco consumption is on the rise, particularly among young people. Stringent tax policies on tobacco products are a proven strategy to counter tobacco use at the national, regional, and global levels.
In light of the foregoing, the Consortium pour la recherche économique et sociale (CRES) organized a workshop in February 2014 in Côte d’Ivoire. The one-day meeting brought together parliamentarians from 14 of the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which adopted the Abidjan Declaration, requesting the two regional bodies, ECOWAS and the Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA), to review the current guidelines on tobacco taxes.
Currently, the ECOWAS Directive provides for a minimum of 15% excise duty and a maximum of 100%. For UEMOA countries (Senegal, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Niger, and Togo), which are also part of ECOWAS, there is no minimum excise duty rate, while the maximum rate is 45%. Apart from Gambia, the other 14 ECOWAS countries rely solely on ad valorem excise duty (ex-factory price for local products and import values for other products).
With 14 countries dependent on ad valorem excise duty, ECOWAS is clearly not embracing international best practices on tobacco taxation.
Since 2011, CRES has been conducting research to improve fiscal policies on tobacco products within ECOWAS and UEMOA through the adoption of a new directive on tobacco taxes, drawing from the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
CRES has used local and international evidence to argue for hybrid excise duty comprising an ad valorem tax and a specific tax to be regularly adjusted based on inflation.
If the new directive is adopted, it is then expected that the price of tobacco products in the 15 ECOWAS countries would increase every year. This would result in a decline in tobacco consumption in the region and, in turn, to substantial health gains and lower health care costs, not to mention increased tax revenues.
Read more about IDRC's Non-Communicable Disease Prevention Interventions
Comments