Design and Impact of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes: The Case of South Africa

In 2018, South Africa implemented the Health Promotion Levy, an excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) aimed at reducing obesity and the associated increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. South Africa uses an innovative tax design with both a sugar-content based specific tax as well as a sugar-content based tax threshold. This system is designed to generate incentives for manufacturers to reformulate SSBs and reduce the sugar content, thereby reducing their tax liability.

This event discussed and disseminated recent work from South African researchers evaluating the impact of the tax, highlighting evidence on reformulation, tax administration and health, and the policy process. Participants learned about successes and challenges, and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the nuances around implementing taxes with similarly complex tax structure.

AGENDA

8:00 am | Welcoming Remarks by the Chair

Meera Shekar, Global Lead for Nutrition, Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice, World Bank

8:05 am| Introduction to health taxes in South Africa

Dr. Evan Blecher, Senior Consultant, Health Tax Workstream, Global Tax Program, World Bank

8:15 am | Health Promotion Levy in South Africa

Mpho Legote, Director of VAT, Excise Duties and Subnational Taxes, Tax Policy Unit, National Treasury, Republic of South Africa

8:30 am | Evaluating the Health Promotion Levy: Review of the Evidence

Nicholas Stacey, Health Economics Researcher, Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science

Prof. Karen Hofman, Director, SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science/PRICELESS SA, University of Witwatersrand

9:00 am | Tax administration: lessons learned from health taxes in South Africa

Prof. Corné van Walbeek, Director, Research Unit on Excisable Products, University of Cape Town

9:15 am | Public Q&A

9:25 am | Concluding Remarks & Key Takeaways