Wrong tax policies denying smokers chance to quit
Kenya’s smokers are faced with ever increasing cigarette prices, largely driven by the government’s efforts to control smoking.
The latest hike in excise tax rates on tobacco products, effective October 1, was the third in two years and amounted to a 46.3 per cent aggregate increase since 2019 – more than double the rate of inflation.
The Ministry of Health reports that 8,100 Kenyan lives are lost every year to tobacco-related disease. Their intention with this tax policy is clear: to get smokers to quit by making cigarettes prohibitively expensive.
However, this is not an effective or sustainable way out of smoking. Experience tells us that sustained tax increases on cigarettes – and other excisable products such as alcohol – often have unintended consequences, and ultimately fail to achieve the desired reduction in consumption. They leave consumers with restricted or bad choices.
Despite high tax rates on tobacco products across Africa, smoking rates on the continent continue to increase, in defiance of global trends.
Moreover, pricing products out of reach of consumers can cause price disparities between neighbouring countries, leading to smuggling and other forms of illicit trade.
There are efficient solutions to this issue: alternative nicotine products, such as vapes and oral pouches, which are reducing smoking rates around the world.
In Kenya, however, they are being taxed just as severely as combustible cigarettes – and even more harshly in the case of vapes. That effectively prices these alternative and less risky products out of reach for many consumers who need them. Policymakers are squandering an opportunity to save lives.
In September, a study commissioned by the UK government confirmed once again that vapes are significantly less harmful than cigarettes and have a better success rate than other methods of helping smokers to quit.
Researchers at King’s College London, who conducted the largest ever review of the risks of vaping, concluded that “the levels of exposure to cancer-causing and other toxicants are drastically lower in people who vape compared with those who smoke. Helping people switch from smoking to vaping should be considered a priority”.
In Sweden, increased use of nicotine pouches and snus (a smokeless oral tobacco product) has seen smoking prevalence fall to 5 per cent – compared to a European Union average of 23 per cent. In the USA, the Food and Drug Administration says the use of pouches instead of cigarettes puts smokers “at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema and chronic bronchitis”.
It is clear that alternative nicotine products are a much less risky and should play a leading role in helping smokers give up the deadly habit. But this is not being allowed to happen.
Tax policies that limit access to these safer alternatives infringe on the rights of tobacco consumers. Article 46 of the Constitution states that consumers have a right to the information necessary for them to gain full benefit from goods and services, and a right to the protection of their health, safety and economic interests.
Furthermore, these tax policies may achieve the direct opposite of their intended objective: research into smokers’ behaviour has shown that higher tax rates on vapes lead to increased consumption of traditional combustible cigarettes.
Making safer alternatives prohibitively expensive by increasing excise duty also risks boosting black-market sales of unregulated and potentially harmful products.
The government should prioritise strategies that allow consumers access to safer alternatives, thereby accelerating the reduction of tobacco-related harm.
As part of a balanced, pragmatic and evidence-based public health policy, alternative nicotine products should be taxed according to the level of risk they pose to consumers relative to traditional combustible cigarettes. That is the way to cut smoking rates and save lives.
—The writer is a visual artiste and journalist who writes on pro-consumers policies
Kenya’s smokers are faced with ever increasing cigarette prices, largely driven by the government’s efforts to control smoking.
The latest hike in excise tax rates on tobacco products, effective October 1, was the third in two years and amounted to a 46.3 per cent aggregate increase since 2019 – more than double the rate of inflation.
The Ministry of Health reports that 8,100 Kenyan lives are lost every year to tobacco-related disease. Their intention with this tax policy is clear: to get smokers to quit by making cigarettes prohibitively expensive.
However, this is not an effective or sustainable way out of smoking. Experience tells us that sustained tax increases on cigarettes – and other excisable products such as alcohol – often have unintended consequences, and ultimately fail to achieve the desired reduction in consumption. They leave consumers with restricted or bad choices.
Despite high tax rates on tobacco products across Africa, smoking rates on the continent continue to increase, in defiance of global trends.
Moreover, pricing products out of reach of consumers can cause price disparities between neighbouring countries, leading to smuggling and other forms of illicit trade.
There are efficient solutions to this issue: alternative nicotine products, such as vapes and oral pouches, which are reducing smoking rates around the world.
In Kenya, however, they are being taxed just as severely as combustible cigarettes – and even more harshly in the case of vapes. That effectively prices these alternative and less risky products out of reach for many consumers who need them. Policymakers are squandering an opportunity to save lives.
In September, a study commissioned by the UK government confirmed once again that vapes are significantly less harmful than cigarettes and have a better success rate than other methods of helping smokers to quit.
Researchers at King’s College London, who conducted the largest ever review of the risks of vaping, concluded that “the levels of exposure to cancer-causing and other toxicants are drastically lower in people who vape compared with those who smoke. Helping people switch from smoking to vaping should be considered a priority”.
In Sweden, increased use of nicotine pouches and snus (a smokeless oral tobacco product) has seen smoking prevalence fall to 5 per cent – compared to a European Union average of 23 per cent. In the USA, the Food and Drug Administration says the use of pouches instead of cigarettes puts smokers “at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema and chronic bronchitis”.
It is clear that alternative nicotine products are a much less risky and should play a leading role in helping smokers give up the deadly habit. But this is not being allowed to happen.
Tax policies that limit access to these safer alternatives infringe on the rights of tobacco consumers. Article 46 of the Constitution states that consumers have a right to the information necessary for them to gain full benefit from goods and services, and a right to the protection of their health, safety and economic interests.
Furthermore, these tax policies may achieve the direct opposite of their intended objective: research into smokers’ behaviour has shown that higher tax rates on vapes lead to increased consumption of traditional combustible cigarettes.
Making safer alternatives prohibitively expensive by increasing excise duty also risks boosting black-market sales of unregulated and potentially harmful products.
The government should prioritise strategies that allow consumers access to safer alternatives, thereby accelerating the reduction of tobacco-related harm.
As part of a balanced, pragmatic and evidence-based public health policy, alternative nicotine products should be taxed according to the level of risk they pose to consumers relative to traditional combustible cigarettes. That is the way to cut smoking rates and save lives.
—The writer is a visual artiste and journalist who writes on pro-consumers policies
