By Global Health Advocacy Incubator
Excise taxes on sugary drinks represent an effective and evidence-based policy to prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Together with excise taxes on tobacco products and alcoholic beverages, they constitute a tool to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and the World Health Organization recommends them to modify the behavioral risk factors linked to obesity and NCDs, as outlined in the WHO global action plan. Taxes on sugary beverages have been said to represent a triple win for governments, as they: 1) improve the health of the population, 2) generate income, and 3) can reduce the corresponding long-term health care costs and productivity losses. The taxation of sugary drinks has been implemented in more than 73 countries around the world. In the Region of the Americas, 21 PAHO Member States apply selective taxes at the national level on these beverages, and seven jurisdictions in the United States of America impose local taxes on them. While the number of countries that apply national excise taxes on sugary drinks in the Region is promising, most of these taxes could be expanded to improve their impact on the consumption of sugary drinks and on health. economic concepts related to the justification of the use of taxes on sugary drinks, as well as the costs related to obesity; some key considerations about tax design, including rates, bases and corresponding rates; a description of the possible tax revenue and its allocation to specific purposes; evidence on the extent to which such taxes are expected to affect prices and demand for taxed beverages and their replacement by non-taxed beverages; and the answer to some frequently asked questions about the economic effects of the taxation of sugary drinks.
Product Details
- Publisher : Pan American Health Organization (April 9, 2021)
- Language : Spanish
- Paperback : 74 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9275322996
- ISBN-13 : 978-9275322994
- ISBN-13 : 9789275322994
- eText ISBN: 9789275323007
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