The assistant commissioner for research and policy at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Alex Kombat, has called on Parliament to speed up the passage of the Excise Duty Amendment bill to save lives and raise revenue.
He said the delay in passing the bill is causing a health burden and affecting the revenue target of GHC 105 billion in the 2023 budget statement.
Kombat made the call at a news conference organised by 3 civil society organisations – the Vision for Alternative Development (VALD-Ghana), Tax Justice Coalition and Jaishi Youth Initiative in Accra.
He mentioned tobacco, alcoholic beverages, spirits (Akpeteshie), carbonated drinks and bottled water as products that attract excise taxes in Ghana.
“Alcohol consumption is considered the leading cause of deaths in Ghana with over 200 health conditions linked to harmful alcohol use. In fact, every day someone dies of alcohol related diseases in the country. Diabetes related deaths are about 3.4% of total deaths,” he stated.
He said generally, people continue to consume these harmful products because they are not expensive enough. He stated, “so government/GRA has seen the need to put taxes on them to increase their prices to deter people from consuming them in large quantities.
“In fact, over the years, GRA has used excise taxes, customs duties, value-added tax (VAT), national health insurance levy (NHIL), among others at the entry points and at domestic front to discourage consumption of these products.
“However, the needed revenues are not being derived. Also, the needed impact on consumption of the products were not achieved, hence the need to revise the tax rates of some of the products, for example tobacco, water, carbonated drinks/sugar sweetened beverages, spirits (Akpeteshie) and alcoholic beverages and the rest.”
Kombat added that the GRA found the news conference timely and that it is in full support of the bill, stating that “it is our hope that the tobacco mixed regime will rake in the needed revenue and reduce the consumption of the products.”
The executive director of programmes at VALD-Ghana, Labrah Musah, called on parliamentarians to resist interference from the tobacco industry. He said it has a track record of lobbying and interfering in public health policies.
He added that the last time Ghana passed an Excise Bill was in 2015, which saw an increase in tobacco products from a pure ad valorem of 150% to 175%.
“Every year civil society organisations, led by VALD-Ghana, continue to make tax proposals on unhealthy commodities through advocacy campaigns and actions. It is indeed a sigh of relief that finally there has been a proposed reform in the excise taxes on health-harming products including cigarettes, alcohol and sugar sweetened beverages,” he stated.
Musah expressed gratitude to the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, for accepting the proposals, which were included the 2023 Budget Statement. He said: “Indeed the final passage of the bill in its current state would demonstrate the commitment of the government to address one of the leading causes of non-communicable diseases such as; cancer, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive lung disease.”
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