The Economic and Health Benefits of Tobacco Taxation

The Economic and Health Benefits of Tobacco Taxation, produced by the Tobacco Free Initiative of the World Health Organization and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, highlights the importance of tobacco control in the post-2015 development agenda, and the potential for higher taxes on tobacco products to act as a large funding source for governments. Taxing tobacco products has been proven to be the most effective tobacco control measure for reducing consumption, and therefore saving lives. Introducing higher tobacco taxation is a win-win policy: it not only saves lives, but it also increases government revenue that can then be spent on health and development priorities