Why Alcohol Taxation
Alcohol taxation is the most powerful alcohol policy solution. It delivers a quadruple win: preventing harm, reducing costs, and saving lives; raising revenue; funding health and development priorities; and promoting social justice. Alcohol taxes unlock progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – from health and education to gender equality and economic resilience.
Exposing the Problem: Alcohol Industry Harm
The alcohol industry profits from harm. Ultra-cheap products are aggressively marketed, fueling heavy use and devastating health, social, and economic costs. Industry lobbyists fight tax reform with myths and misleading claims but evidence shows well-designed alcohol taxes save lives, strengthen communities, and protect economies.
Purpose
The Launchpad is designed to make alcohol taxation advocacy values-based, evidence-informed, strategic, adaptable, and impactful.
It is from people and for people – highlighting broad public support, centring lived experiences, and amplifying the voices of communities demanding change. By equipping advocates and policymakers with cutting-edge resources and inspiring stories, it helps turn political will into policy action.
What You’ll Find Inside
- Global Advocacy Impact: a decade-long story of how Movendi and partners put alcohol taxation on the global agenda.
- Country Success Stories: powerful examples from Sri Lanka, Ghana, and Brazil showing how reforms deliver health, justice, and development.
- Countering Industry Claims: a practical issue brief to expose Big Alcohol’s myths and defend reforms.
- Case for Alcohol Taxation
- Net economic loss due to alcohol harm costs in societies around the world
- The revenue potential of raising alcohol taxes
- Addressing alcohol’s household burden and crowding-out effects
- State of the Art Science for Alcohol Taxation: the latest evidence confirming alcohol taxation as a best buy for governments.
- Alcohol Taxation Models: issue brief mapping tax structures around the world to inspire effective design.
- People’s support: Data and stories showing strong public backing for higher alcohol taxes.
- Centering Lived Experience: resources to bring people’s realities and voices into advocacy strategies that resonate and galvanize support.
Take Action
Explore the Launchpad. Use the tools. Share the stories. Together, we can advance alcohol taxation to save lives, protect communities, and build fairer, healthier societies.
The Quadruple Win of Alcohol Taxation
Alcohol taxation is a fiscal policy and a powerful, proven tool for transforming societies. The full potential of raising alcohol excise taxation is best captured in its quadruple win:
- Prevent and reduce harm: Raising alcohol taxes is the single most cost-effective alcohol policy solution to directly lower population-level alcohol consumption and the wide range of harms and costs it causes – violence, injuries, cancer, liver and heart disease, mental ill-health, and premature deaths. It prevents suffering, saves lives, and protects families and communities.
- Generate revenue: Alcohol taxation is a cost-effective measure for governments to increase domestic revenues. The potential of alcohol taxation to bring in reliable and substantial funds often exceeds those from tobacco or sugar-sweetened beverage taxes.
- Finance health and development priorities: The revenues raised can be (soft) earmarked or strategically allocated to finance health systems, prevention and health promotion programs, education, or other vital public services, such as better enforcement and scientific evaluation of alcohol policies. This way alcohol taxation helps fund public goods and human development.
- Advance health equity and social justice: Alcohol harm disproportionately affects people in vulnerable and marginalised communities with low socio-economic status. Preventing and reducing alcohol harm benefits them the most and redirecting revenues toward public goods contributes to reducing health inequalities. Alcohol taxation is a rights-based, pro-equity policy that promotes social justice and strengthens the social contract by prioritizing people’s welfare over alcohol industry profit interests.
Communities have long advocated for the use of alcohol taxation as a high-impact, cost-effective tool for domestic resource mobilisation. The potential of alcohol taxation to do good is substantial:
For instance, a global study estimated that increasing alcohol taxes globally by just 20% could generate additional revenue over US$ 9.4 trillion over 50 years – resources that could be used to fund healthcare, education, and social protection.
In 2024, the Task Force on Fiscal Policy for Health released a landmark report, “Health Taxes: A Compelling Policy for the Crises of Today.” It illustrates the significant potential of raising pro-health taxes for saving lives and it shows that raising alcohol taxes has the biggest potential for revenue generation. to invest in programs and services for people.
The Copenhagen Consensus Center released a landmark study in 2023. It identified 30 cost-effective interventions to achieve the SDGs in the fastest way possible. Analysis showed that the alcohol policy best buys in general and alcohol taxation on its own ranked second and third most effective out of all 30 interventions.
Implementing the alcohol policy best buys could prevent 150,000 deaths caused by alcohol in the next ten years. For every dollar spent on alcohol taxation alone, a country could generate social benefits worth $53.
An Urgent Opportunity for Alcohol Policy Progress
With ample evidence of its effectiveness and growing public support, raising alcohol taxes is a proven strategy for preventing harm and promoting health equity. It helps accelerate progress on 15 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Movendi International has developed three resources to support countries and build capacity for civil society advocacy towards raising alcohol taxes – together the three resources illustrate the potential of raising alcohol taxes.
- Countries achieve remarkable benefits through alcohol taxation: Multiple countries with different conditions and contexts reap the benefits of increasing alcohol excises taxes. Eight country case stories show that raising alcohol taxes can be done, that it is being done, and that it is beneficial for people and societies.
- People support raising alcohol taxes: Data from surveys by Gallup and by Vital Strategies for the RESET Alcohol Initiative shows that a majority of people across nine different countries from different parts of the world supports raising alcohol taxes. The support increases when people understand that the additional revenue is being used to fund critical services and government programs, such as mental healthcare services.
- Raising alcohol excise taxes helps achieve the SDGs: Analysis by Movendi International shows that alcohol harm impedes 15 of 17 SDGs, in all three dimensions of sustainable development. A complementary analysis illustrates evidence that raising alcohol taxes boost progress towards multiple SDGs. It means that raising alcohol taxes brings multiple benefits to people, communities, economies, and societies.
Global Advocacy Impact
Find inspiration in Kristina’s story of the decade-long advocacy initiative to place alcohol taxation on the global agenda.
Advocacy Success Stories
Three inspiring examples from Sri Lanka, Ghana, and Brazil showing how advocacy contributes to support alcohol tax reforms deliver health, justice, and development.
The Case For Alcohol Taxation
Countering Industry Claims
A Guide for Advocates who need evidence to face claims fabricated by Big Alcohol. This practical issue brief exposes Big Alcohol’s myths and empowers alcohol taxation advocates to defend alcohol tax reforms.
Countries Making progress
2025 state of the art: Latest development of countries from around the world taking initiatives for raising alcohol taxes.
- Bhutan:
- Colombia: “Colombia Plans to Raise Alcohol Taxes As Part of Ambitious Overall Tax Reform”
- Egypt: “Egypt Reforms Alcohol Taxation to Increase Revenue”
- Great Britain:
- Namibia: “Namibia Plans Alcohol, Tobacco Tax Increases to Promote Health, Protect Youth”
- New Mexico, USA: “How Raising Alcohol Taxes Would Benefit New Mexico”
- South Africa
- Vietnam: “Viet Nam Puts Alcohol Tax Increases Into Effect”
- Worldwide: “Advocacy Win: Alcohol Taxation Is Included in FfD4 Outcome Document”
World Map Alcohol Taxation Best Practices
Introducing the policy brief “Alcohol Tax Implementation Case Stories”.
Movendi International released a policy brief in April 2024 with eight case stories of alcohol tax implementation in eight different countries, where the result of the alcohol tax changes have been evaluated scientifically in peer-reviewed articles, or by WHO experts.
The brief details the positive impacts of raising alcohol taxes in Botswana, Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, and the Philippines. And it shows with the case of Finland the harms that increase from reducing alcohol taxes and prices.
The policy brief “Alcohol Tax Implementation Case Stories” is a contribution to the advocacy work of RESET Alcohol Initiative country partners.
People’s Support
People Want Higher Alcohol Taxes
Worldwide Data on Public Support for Alcohol Taxation
New Report Shows Communities Worldwide Support Raising Alcohol Taxes and Other Alcohol Policies
State of the Art Alcohol Taxation Science
The latest evidence confirming alcohol taxation as a best buy for governments. Find and use more than 100 resource articles on our Alcohol Taxation Science Digest.