Story by Eugene Nyarko Jnr. l Accra l Friday, October 30, 2026 —
Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST Ghana) has called on the Ministry of Finance to introduce comprehensive excise tax reforms in the 2027–2030 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to curb non-communicable diseases (NCDs), protect vulnerable populations and mobilise sustainable domestic revenue for healthcare financing.
The organisation said Ghana’s growing NCD burden, rising healthcare costs and fiscal constraints required a stronger health taxation framework capable of reducing the consumption of harmful products while generating predictable revenue to support essential health services.
In a press statement issued on October 30, VAST Ghana said NCDs accounted for approximately 45 per cent of all deaths in Ghana, with cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases placing increasing pressure on households, businesses and the healthcare system.
It identified tobacco, alcohol, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and ultra-processed foods as major commercial determinants of the growing disease burden, warning that their consumption contributed to conditions requiring long-term treatment.
According to the organisation, low-income households and other vulnerable groups were particularly exposed to the consequences because they had fewer resources to absorb healthcare costs and productivity losses.
Tobacco taxation
VAST Ghana cited the economic consequences of tobacco use as a compelling reason for stronger excise taxation.
It said tobacco use claimed more than 6,700 lives in Ghana annually and caused estimated economic losses of GH¢668 million.
The organisation argued that these costs outweighed the public health benefits of maintaining relatively low tobacco prices, stressing that tobacco taxation should be treated as an investment in public health and economic productivity rather than merely a revenue-generating measure.
It urged the government to increase the specific excise tax on cigarettes from GH¢0.28 to GH¢1.00 per stick and review the ad valorem tax rate upwards from 50 per cent to 100 per cent.
The proposed increases, it said, would raise cigarette prices, reduce affordability and strengthen the public health impact of tobacco taxation.
Alcohol and sugary drinks
On alcohol, VAST Ghana called for the extension of the hybrid excise tax structure to all alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine, cider and ready-to-drink alcoholic products, rather than restricting the reform to spirits.
It also recommended incorporating alcohol-by-volume (ABV) principles to ensure that products were taxed according to their alcohol content.
The organisation further proposed a minimum pricing policy to complement excise taxation, arguing that tax increases alone might not prevent manufacturers and retailers from keeping certain alcoholic products extremely cheap through pricing strategies.
For sugar-sweetened beverages, VAST Ghana recommended introducing a hybrid excise tax combining the existing 20 per cent ad valorem rate with a specific tax determined by free sugar content.
It said the approach should cover beverages according to their sugar content rather than distinguishing products solely by whether they were locally produced or classified as fruit juice.
The organisation also called for the reintroduction of the 20 per cent excise tax on fruit juices, cautioning that such beverages could contain substantial amounts of free or concentrated sugars and contribute to excessive sugar consumption.
While acknowledging that the exemption introduced under the Excise Tax Act, 2026, was intended to support local industry and improve access to healthier products, VAST Ghana said the measure required further public health consideration.
WHO recommendations
VAST Ghana said its proposals aligned with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) growing emphasis on health taxes as a tool for sustainable domestic financing.
It referenced the WHO’s 3 by 35 Initiative, which calls on countries to increase the real prices of tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks by at least 50 per cent by 2035 through taxation.
The organisation also cited the WHO’s 2026 global report on alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverage taxation, which highlights concerns about inadequate taxation and the increasing affordability of these products where tax systems fail to keep pace with inflation and income growth.
It said stronger excise taxation would support Ghana’s commitments under Sustainable Development Goal 3, particularly the target of reducing premature mortality from NCDs by one-third by 2030 and the commitment to universal health coverage.
VAST Ghana further linked the proposed reforms to the political declaration adopted at the fourth United Nations High-Level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health in December 2025, as well as the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the 2025 Sevilla Commitment on Financing for Development.
It also said the reforms were consistent with President John Dramani Mahama’s Accra Reset Agenda, which emphasises African health sovereignty, domestic resource mobilisation and reducing dependence on external health financing.
The organisation referenced calls by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the Accra Health Sovereignty Summit for stronger taxation of products harmful to health.
Taxing ultra-processed foods
Beyond tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks, VAST Ghana called for the introduction of excise taxes on ultra-processed foods containing excessive amounts of sugar, sodium, saturated fats and other nutrients associated with NCD risks.
It said Ghana’s health taxation framework needed to evolve to address a broader range of products contributing to diet-related diseases.
The organisation also urged the government to abolish excise taxation on electronic cigarettes and e-liquids, arguing that including such products in the excise tax schedule created a policy inconsistency if they were prohibited under the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851).
It said removing the products from the excise tax schedule would improve policy coherence and strengthen enforcement.
Digital tracking and revenue allocation
VAST Ghana called for the implementation of track-and-trace systems and the digitisation of the Excise Tax Stamp System to strengthen monitoring and enforcement, curb illicit trade and improve compliance.
It said these measures should be aligned with Article 15 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.
The organisation further recommended granting the Ministry of Finance the mandate to adjust specific excise taxes automatically each year to outpace inflation and growth in gross domestic product or incomes, thereby preventing harmful products from becoming more affordable over time.
It also called for a defined proportion of revenue generated from tobacco, alcohol, sugary drinks and other health taxes to be earmarked for NCD prevention, health promotion, tobacco and alcohol control programmes, and priority health interventions.
Such interventions, it said, could include the Ghana Medical Trust Fund and the Free Primary Healthcare policy.
VAST Ghana said the 2027–2030 Budget framework offered the government an opportunity to institutionalise health taxation as a central component of fiscal policy, disease prevention and sustainable healthcare financing.
It urged the Ministry of Finance to make the proposed reforms a priority in Ghana’s domestic resource mobilisation and public health strategies, arguing that well-designed health taxes could simultaneously discourage harmful consumption, prevent premature deaths and generate revenue for essential public services.
