{"id":1564,"date":"2026-08-17T19:32:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T19:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/?p=1564"},"modified":"2026-08-17T23:13:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:13:41","slug":"vast-ghana-calls-for-further-reforms-to-strengthen-public-health-protection-after-passage-of-excise-tax-bill-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/vast-ghana-calls-for-further-reforms-to-strengthen-public-health-protection-after-passage-of-excise-tax-bill-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"VAST Ghana Calls for Further Reforms to Strengthen Public Health Protection after Passage of Excise Tax Bill 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST Ghana) warmly commends the Parliament of Ghana for the successful passage of the Excise Tax Bill 2026 and expresses its profound appreciation to the Ministry of Finance for the proposed reforms to the excise tax regime.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passage of this legislation marks another important milestone in Ghana’s journey toward using fiscal policy not only as a revenue mobilisation tool, but also as a strategic instrument for protecting public health, promoting responsible consumption, and strengthening sustainable domestic financing for health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when Ghana continues to experience a growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), rising healthcare costs, and declining external health financing, the passage of the Bill demonstrates strong political leadership and a growing recognition that well-designed health taxes are among the most cost-effective interventions available to governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reform aligns with global recommendations from the World Health Organization, which continues to advocate for stronger health taxes under its \u201c3 by 35 Initiative\u201d – a call for countries to raise the real price of tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages by at least 50% by 2035 through excise tax increases, thereby reducing affordability and generating sustainable domestic resources for health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NCDs now account for nearly half of all deaths in Ghana (45%) and place significant pressure on the country’s health system, workforce productivity, household incomes, and national economic development. The treatment of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and other NCDs consumes substantial healthcare resources that could otherwise be invested in preventive health services and broader development priorities. Fiscal measures that discourage the consumption of health-harming products therefore represent one of the smartest investments Ghana can make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAST Ghana welcomes the decision to reform the excise tax structure for spirits, shifting from a purely ad valorem system to a hybrid structure that combines specific and ad valorem tax rates. This is an important public health achievement. Evidence from countries such as Thailand and the Philippines shows that hybrid excise taxes are more effective than ad valorem taxes alone in reducing alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By raising the price of the cheapest products, often consumed by lower-income groups, young people, and heavy drinkers, hybrid taxes help reduce consumption of unhealthy products while limiting the industry’s ability to shift consumers toward lower-taxed alternatives.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this reform represents an important step forward, VAST Ghana encourages the Government to extend the hybrid excise tax structure beyond spirits to cover all alcohol beverages, including beer, wine, ciders, and ready-to-drink alcohol products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A consistent taxation approach across all alcohol categories would create a more coherent tax system, minimise harmful product substitutions, and maximise both public health and revenue outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAST Ghana further recommends that Ghana introduce a minimum unit pricing policy for alcohol in future reforms\u2014 an effective complementary measure that prevents the sale of extremely cheap alcohol and works alongside excise taxation to reduce alcohol-related harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While VAST Ghana acknowledges the rationale for removing the 20% excise tax on locally produced natural fruit juices to support local industry, this decision warrants careful reconsideration from a public health perspective. Fruit juices, particularly those containing free or naturally occurring concentrated sugars, can still contribute significantly to excessive sugar intake and increase the risk of NCDs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHO recommends that all beverages containing free sugars be subject to excise tax. Excluding locally produced fruit juices from the excise tax framework may therefore weaken the public health effectiveness of Ghana’s health tax policy and reduce its ability to discourage excessive sugar consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more appropriate approach would be to tax beverages based on their free sugar content, regardless of whether they are locally produced or imported, while encouraging manufacturers to reformulate\/shift toward healthier options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAST Ghana urges the Government to establish robust regulatory and monitoring mechanisms to prevent abuse of any remaining exemptions. Global experience shows that some manufacturers rebrand or reformulate products as \u201cfruit juices\u201d or \u201cnectars\u201d to avoid health taxes while retaining high levels of free sugars and limited actual fruit content. Clear product standards, mandatory labelling of free sugar content, and regular compliance monitoring by the Food and Drugs Authority will be essential to preserve the integrity of the reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAST Ghana remains concerned that the Excise Tax Bill 2026 retains excise tax on electronic cigarettes. Ghana’s Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851) and the Tobacco Control Regulations, 2016 prohibit the manufacture, importation, advertisement, sale, and distribution of electronic cigarettes and related products for recreational use. Continuing to tax products that are prohibited under national law creates unnecessary policy incoherence and risks sending conflicting signals to regulators, enforcement agencies, importers, and the public, signals that can be misrepresented by industry as evidence of legal market acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A product that is prohibited should not simultaneously appear within the country’s excise tax framework. Removing electronic cigarettes from the excise tax schedule would strengthen regulatory consistency, reinforce enforcement efforts, and eliminate opportunities for the tobacco industry to misrepresent taxation as evidence of legal market acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equally concerning is the Excise Tax Bill 2026’s failure to strengthen tobacco excise taxes. Tobacco remains one of the leading preventable causes of death in Ghana, claiming more than 6,700 lives each year and costing the country more than GHS 668 million annually through healthcare expenditure and productivity losses, equivalent to about 0.2% of GDP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current tobacco taxes remain well below the WHO recommendation that taxes should account for at least 70% of the retail price of the most popular cigarette brands. Maintaining existing tax rates represents a missed opportunity to reduce affordability, prevent youth initiation, encourage cessation, save lives, reduce healthcare costs, and generate additional domestic revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAST Ghana recommends that Government consider earmarking a meaningful portion of health tax revenues to finance NCD prevention, health promotion, screening, and health system strengthening. Dedicated financing would help ensure that the dual benefits of reduced harm and increased revenue are fully realised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passage of the Excise Tax Act 2026 demonstrates that Ghana continues to recognise the importance of health taxes as an essential component of sustainable development. The reforms adopted represent meaningful progress and provide a strong foundation upon which future improvements can be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAST Ghana remains committed to supporting and collaborating with Government, CSOs, academia, development partners, and regulatory agencies to ensure that Ghana’s excise tax system evolves in line with international best practice and delivers maximum health, social, and economic benefits for all Ghanaians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media Contact
Jennifer Maame Ama Owusu
Communications Manager
VAST Ghana
jenniferowusu@vastgh.org
+233208013990<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST Ghana) warmly commends the Parliament of Ghana for the successful passage of the Excise Tax Bill 2026 and expresses its profound appreciation to the Ministry of Finance for the proposed reforms to the excise tax regime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,8],"tags":[1237,1238,15,1236],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1567,"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions\/1567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanewsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}