Publication: Saving Lives While Raising Revenue: Opportunities in Brazil’s Reform of Indirect Taxes to Improve Tobacco, Alcohol, and Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) Excise Taxes
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2024-11-04
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2024-11-04
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Taxes and prices of tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in Brazil are low compared to international peers. The ongoing landmark reform of indirect taxes (PLP 68/2024 and forthcoming Ordinary Law) provides an excellent opportunity to put in place well-designed excise taxes on tobacco, alcohol and SSBs.If well implemented, reforms of the tax structure and increases in tax rates can make them more effective at improving population health and raising additional tax revenue. Global evidence to support reforms is strong, supporting the use of well-designed and administered health taxes.Following global best practices, it is recommended that health taxes are focused on specific taxes or, when applied in mixed systems, that the specific taxes comprise a larger component of the excise tax than the ad valorem component. Tax rates, particularly for specific taxes, need to be increased significantly to align Brazil with the prices of international peers, and indexed to inflation plus three percentage points to protect real values of tax over time, and to reduce the affordability of tobacco, alcohol, and SSBs.
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“Maldonado, N.; Blecher, E.; Fleischhaker, C.. 2024. Saving Lives While Raising Revenue: Opportunities in Brazil’s Reform of Indirect Taxes to Improve Tobacco, Alcohol, and Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) Excise Taxes. Health Taxes Knowledge Note; No. 6. Global Tax Program. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42359 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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