Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2012 Jan 1;10(1):65-76. doi: 10.2165/11594860-000000000-00000.
Alcohol consumption accounts for over 4% of the global burden of disease and an even higher figure in developing countries. Several policies have been proposed to curb the negative impact of alcohol misuse. Apart from South Africa, which has witnessed a rapid development in alcohol policy, such policies are poorly developed in most African countries. South Africa uses taxation as a policy lever, in line with international evidence, to reduce alcohol consumption. However, the problem of alcohol abuse still exists.
The objective of this article is to present an analysis of alcohol tax incidence for the first time in South Africa. This was done for each category of alcohol tax (wines, spirits, beer and traditional brew [sorghum beer]) and for alcohol tax as a whole. The paper also uses the results to point to the areas where a greater understanding of the issues surrounding alcohol abuse needs to be developed.
Data were drawn from the 2005/06 South African Income and Expenditure Survey. Reported expenditures on alcohol beverages were used to obtain the tax component paid by households. This was done under certain assumptions relating to alcohol content and the price per litre of alcohol. Per adult equivalent consumption expenditure was used as the measure of relative living standards and concentration curves and Kakwani indices to assess relative progressivity of alcohol taxes. Statistical dominance tests were also performed.
Most sorghum beer and malt beer drinkers were in the poorer quintiles. The reverse was the case for wines and spirits. Overall, alcohol tax in South Africa was regressive (Kakwani index -0.353). The individual categories were found to be regressive. The most regressive tax was that on sorghum beer (Kakwani index -1.01); the least regressive was that on spirits (Kakwani index -0.09), although this was not statistically significant at conventional levels. These results were confirmed by the test of dominance.
In South Africa, there has been a renewed interest in addressing the problem of rising alcohol abuse, but the extent to which this will translate into meaningful policies is unclear. The use of an excise tax is increasingly being recognized by economists as a way to get around some of the negative effects of abusive alcohol consumption. However, this study indicates that alcohol taxes are regressive in South Africa.
在全球疾病负担中，酒精消费占比超过 4%，在发展中国家这一比例甚至更高。为了遏制酒精滥用的负面影响，已经提出了多项政策。除了南非，南非的酒精政策迅速发展，而在大多数非洲国家，这类政策都很差劲。南非采用税收作为政策杠杆，符合国际证据，以减少酒精消费。然而，酗酒问题仍然存在。
本文的目的是首次在南非分析酒精税的税负归宿。这是针对每一种酒类税收（葡萄酒、烈酒、啤酒和传统酿造酒[高粱啤酒]）以及酒类税收的整体情况进行的。本文还利用这些结果指出需要进一步了解酗酒问题的领域。
数据来自 2005/06 年南非收入和支出调查。报告的酒精饮料支出被用来获得家庭缴纳的税款。这是根据酒精含量和每升酒精价格的某些假设来完成的。每个成年人的消费支出被用作衡量相对生活水平的指标，集中曲线和 Kakwani 指数用于评估酒类税收的相对累进性。还进行了统计优势测试。
高粱啤酒和麦芽啤酒的饮用者主要来自较贫穷的五分位数。而葡萄酒和烈酒则相反。总的来说，南非的酒精税是累退的（Kakwani 指数-0.353）。各个类别被发现是累退的。最累退的税是高粱啤酒税（Kakwani 指数-1.01）；最不累退的是烈酒税（Kakwani 指数-0.09），尽管这在传统水平上并不具有统计学意义。这些结果被优势测试所证实。
南非重新关注日益严重的酗酒问题，但这将在多大程度上转化为有意义的政策尚不清楚。经济学家越来越认识到，消费税是一种规避酗酒消费负面影响的方法。然而，本研究表明，南非的酒精税是累退的。
