Alliance wants additional 50 percent tobacco tax increase to fund budget
The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) has called for an increase of the tobacco taxes from the current 20 percent to 70 percent for earmarking to fund some specific sectors in the National Budget on health. The Board Chairman of the alliance, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi and Project Coordinator, Mr. Olu’Seun Esan made the call yesterday […]
Board Chairman, Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA), Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi and Project Coordinator NTCA, Mr. Olu’Seun Esan addressing newsmen on the additional 50 percent tobacco tax increase for earmarking to fund health budget in Abuja.
Photo: Abbas Jimoh
The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) has called for an increase of the tobacco taxes from the current 20 percent to 70 percent for earmarking to fund some specific sectors in the National Budget on health.
The Board Chairman of the alliance, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi and Project Coordinator, Mr. Olu’Seun Esan made the call yesterday in Abuja at a joint press conference.
According to them, in October 2005, Nigeria ratified the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which recommended many effective ways of controlling tobacco in its various stages and protecting public health.
They said that till date lots of the recommendations of the FCTC which Nigeria is a signatory to are yet to be implemented by Nigeria.
“One of the recommendations of the FCTC is about 70 percent tax increase while Nigeria is currently around 20 percent. When effectively implemented, the FCTC is a fundamental tool to reduce the devastating global consequences of tobacco products on health, lives, economies and environments,” they said.
Oluwafemi said it has been established that tobacco tax increases that increase prices of tobacco products are the most cost effective policy for tobacco use reduction, increases revenues, thus effective tobacco tax increase present a win-win policy for public revenues and public health.
He said that earmarking a fraction of the revenue accruable from tobacco taxes and levies is one of the best practices effective for the promotion of public health and that about 30 countries from all regions of the world earmark tobacco tax revenues for health purposes and which has given them outstanding results in public health.
Esan on his part said the WHO recommended the use of tobacco taxes to fund healthcare programmes in its World Health Report 2010, which focused on health systems financing, recognizing that the use of even a small proportion of the revenues for health would greatly improve access to services.
“The Nigeria 2018 budget has about 3.9 percent allocated to health which is a great reduction from the AU Abuja declaration of 2001 where at least 15 percent of the budget was declared. This shows a critical underfunding of the crucial health sector; tobacco tax earmarking provides an easier solution to this problem.
“For example, Iceland, Iran, Switzerland and Vietnam earmark for Tobacco control, Algeria earmarked for cancer control and other health programmes, Costa Rica, Nepal and Panama earmarked for Non-Communicable Diseases including tobacco control. Congo, Egypt and Philippines earmarked for Health insurance and Universal Health coverage. Other examples of tobacco tax earmarking include Argentina, Bangladesh, Cape Verde, Colombia, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Jamaica, Korea, Madagascar, Korea, Thailand and USA; all these countries and more earmarks for health programmes.