Investigating Indicators to Assess and Support Alcohol Taxation Policy: Results From the International Alcohol Control (IAC) Study

Articles in Press

Document Type : Short Communication

Authors

1 SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, College of Health, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

2 Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama, Sri Lanka

3 Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, India

4 Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR), School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

5 Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

6 Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahasarakham University (MSU), Kham Riang, Thailand

7 Cambodia Movement for Health, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

8 PROESA, Universidad Icesi, Cali, Colombia

9 National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Kamataka, India

10 Community Medicine and Public Health, Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu, Nepal

11 Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

12 Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China

13 Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC Canada

14 Department of Social Work, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana

15 Department of Public Health, Adeleke University, Ede Osun State, Nigeria

16 Institute of Economic Affairs, Nairobi, Kenya

17 Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu, Nepal

18 Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

19 Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Health Sciences, Vientiane, Laos

20 Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania

21 Thuongmai University, Hanoi, Vietnam

22 Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

23 Dutch Institute for Alcohol Policy STAP, Utrecht, The Netherlands

24 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada

25 EpiMetrics.Inc, Manila, Philippines

Abstract

Alcohol taxation is a key policy to reduce consumption and alcohol harm but evidence on tax design and indicators to assess taxation policy are lacking. Tax design and two indicators: tax as a share of lowest retail price and affordability, were investigated in eight high-income and nine middle-income jurisdictions.
Collaborators populated the International Alcohol Control (IAC) study online Alcohol Policy Tool, providing measures of tax design , tax rates; and typical lowest prices available for retail take-away alcohol. These data were used to calculate tax/share of retail price. Affordability of alcohol was assessed against Gross National Income per capita.
High-income jurisdictions had higher tax/share and higher affordability on average compared with middle-income jurisdictions. Over the sample as a whole there was no association between these two indicators of tax policy. The tax designs used also varied with high-income jurisdictions more likely to use specific excise tax reflecting potency and middle-income jurisdictions more likely to utilise ad valorem and specific volume based taxes and to use more than one method across a beverage.
Increased alcohol taxation to reduce alcohol consumption and harm is established as a high impact policy and is believed to work by affecting affordability. However, less is known about the best taxation methods to reduce affordability or the best measures to monitor and compare alcohol taxation between countries and over time. In this sample of high and middleincome jurisdictions tax/price share was not found to predict affordability, suggesting the need to further research indicators of alcohol affordability. 

Keywords

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 March 2025

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History

  • Receive Date: 08 May 2024
  • Revise Date: 08 November 2024
  • Accept Date: 26 February 2025
  • First Publish Date: 01 March 2025

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