The Distributional Consequences of Increasing Tobacco Taxes on Colombia’s Health and Finances : An Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Since 2008, when Colombia ratified the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, available evidence of the impact of tobacco consumption, its health effects, and low tax revenues resulting from low tobacco taxation and prices had grown. By 2015, Co...

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Main Authors: James, Erin, Saxena, Akshar, Franco Restrepo, Camila, Llorente, Blanca, Vecino Ortiz, Andrés, Villar Uribe, Manuela, Iunes, Roberto F., Verguet, Stéphane
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/463121507058748037/The-distributional-consequences-of-increasing-tobacco-taxes-on-Colombia-s-health-and-finances-An-extended-cost-effectiveness-analysis
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28598
id okr-10986-28598
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-285982021-05-25T09:04:44Z The Distributional Consequences of Increasing Tobacco Taxes on Colombia’s Health and Finances : An Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis James, Erin Saxena, Akshar Franco Restrepo, Camila Llorente, Blanca Vecino Ortiz, Andrés Villar Uribe, Manuela Iunes, Roberto F. Verguet, Stéphane TOBACCO TAXES DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACT TOBACCO TAX TOBACCO CONTROL HEALTH POLICY TAXATION POVERTY INEQUALITY Since 2008, when Colombia ratified the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, available evidence of the impact of tobacco consumption, its health effects, and low tax revenues resulting from low tobacco taxation and prices had grown. By 2015, Colombia’s cigarette prices stood higher than only one other country in the region, and smoking had become the second leading modifiable risk factor for premature mortality. At that time, reduced fiscal revenues resulting from a sharp drop in oil prices, accompanied by growing demand for government spending arising partly from a change in legislation that increased health benefits for the lower socioeconomic population, led to a call for tax reform. The preparation of the document was accompanied by technical training, studies, and public fora with national and international experts, civil society, and academia presenting evidences and arguing for increased taxation to lead to a reduction in tobacco consumption and, in the future, a reduction in costs to the health system. The fora and open dialogue helped align strategies of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, and the Ministry of Finance in presenting the reform to Congress for approval with a larger academic and civil society support for this measure. In December 2016, resulting from the above-mentioned efforts, Colombia passed a major tax increase on tobacco products with the goal of decreasing smoking and improving population health. While tobacco taxes are known to be highly effective in reducing the prevalence of smoking, they are often criticized as being regressive in consumption. This analysis attempts to assess the distributional impact (across income quintiles) of the new tax on selected health and financial outcomes. 2017-10-26T22:30:17Z 2017-10-26T22:30:17Z 2017 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/463121507058748037/The-distributional-consequences-of-increasing-tobacco-taxes-on-Colombia-s-health-and-finances-An-extended-cost-effectiveness-analysis http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28598 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Poverty Study Economic & Sector Work Latin America & Caribbean Colombia
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic TOBACCO
TAXES
DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACT
TOBACCO TAX
TOBACCO CONTROL
HEALTH POLICY
TAXATION
POVERTY
INEQUALITY
spellingShingle TOBACCO
TAXES
DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACT
TOBACCO TAX
TOBACCO CONTROL
HEALTH POLICY
TAXATION
POVERTY
INEQUALITY
James, Erin
Saxena, Akshar
Franco Restrepo, Camila
Llorente, Blanca
Vecino Ortiz, Andrés
Villar Uribe, Manuela
Iunes, Roberto F.
Verguet, Stéphane
The Distributional Consequences of Increasing Tobacco Taxes on Colombia’s Health and Finances : An Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Colombia
description Since 2008, when Colombia ratified the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, available evidence of the impact of tobacco consumption, its health effects, and low tax revenues resulting from low tobacco taxation and prices had grown. By 2015, Colombia’s cigarette prices stood higher than only one other country in the region, and smoking had become the second leading modifiable risk factor for premature mortality. At that time, reduced fiscal revenues resulting from a sharp drop in oil prices, accompanied by growing demand for government spending arising partly from a change in legislation that increased health benefits for the lower socioeconomic population, led to a call for tax reform. The preparation of the document was accompanied by technical training, studies, and public fora with national and international experts, civil society, and academia presenting evidences and arguing for increased taxation to lead to a reduction in tobacco consumption and, in the future, a reduction in costs to the health system. The fora and open dialogue helped align strategies of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, and the Ministry of Finance in presenting the reform to Congress for approval with a larger academic and civil society support for this measure. In December 2016, resulting from the above-mentioned efforts, Colombia passed a major tax increase on tobacco products with the goal of decreasing smoking and improving population health. While tobacco taxes are known to be highly effective in reducing the prevalence of smoking, they are often criticized as being regressive in consumption. This analysis attempts to assess the distributional impact (across income quintiles) of the new tax on selected health and financial outcomes.
format Report
author James, Erin
Saxena, Akshar
Franco Restrepo, Camila
Llorente, Blanca
Vecino Ortiz, Andrés
Villar Uribe, Manuela
Iunes, Roberto F.
Verguet, Stéphane
author_facet James, Erin
Saxena, Akshar
Franco Restrepo, Camila
Llorente, Blanca
Vecino Ortiz, Andrés
Villar Uribe, Manuela
Iunes, Roberto F.
Verguet, Stéphane
author_sort James, Erin
title The Distributional Consequences of Increasing Tobacco Taxes on Colombia’s Health and Finances : An Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
title_short The Distributional Consequences of Increasing Tobacco Taxes on Colombia’s Health and Finances : An Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
title_full The Distributional Consequences of Increasing Tobacco Taxes on Colombia’s Health and Finances : An Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
title_fullStr The Distributional Consequences of Increasing Tobacco Taxes on Colombia’s Health and Finances : An Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
title_full_unstemmed The Distributional Consequences of Increasing Tobacco Taxes on Colombia’s Health and Finances : An Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
title_sort distributional consequences of increasing tobacco taxes on colombia’s health and finances : an extended cost-effectiveness analysis
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2017
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/463121507058748037/The-distributional-consequences-of-increasing-tobacco-taxes-on-Colombia-s-health-and-finances-An-extended-cost-effectiveness-analysis
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28598
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