Ecuador : Overview of Tobacco Use, Tobacco Control Legislation, and Taxation
The country brief provides and overview of Tobacco Use, Tobacco Control Legislation, and Taxation in Ecuador. Ecuador has a strong tobacco control policy. A comprehensive tobacco control law was adopted and implemented. In 2017, Ecuador was awarded...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/812951560799796187/Ecuador-Overview-of-Tobacco-Use-Tobacco-Control-Legislation-and-Taxation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31961 |
| Summary: | The country brief provides and overview
of Tobacco Use, Tobacco Control Legislation, and Taxation in
Ecuador. Ecuador has a strong tobacco control policy. A
comprehensive tobacco control law was adopted and
implemented. In 2017, Ecuador was awarded the World No
Tobacco Day Prize of the World Health Organization (WHO) for
its tobacco control efforts and implementation of the WHO
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Such policy
was very beneficial to public health: according to the
National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), the
prevalence of daily smoking among people aged 15 years and
older was 9.5 percent in 1998, and in 2014 it reached 2.8
percent. Estimated annual cigarette consumption in Ecuador
declined from about three billion cigarettes in 2007-2010 to
about one billion cigarettes in 2017. The pricing policy of
the tobacco industry also contributed to the reduction in
cigarette affordability and cigarette sales in Ecuador.
However, due to such pricing policy, the tobacco industry
apparently increased its profits despite the sharp decline
in cigarette sales in the country. These recommendations
could bring both public health and fiscal benefits to
Ecuador : specific excise rate for cigarettes should be
annually increased by at least 20 percent to ensure the
reduction in tobacco affordability and the increase in the
excise revenues, tobacco use surveillance and monitoring
should be further developed in Ecuador, including a regular
collection of information on smoking prevalence, tobacco
consumption, licit and illicit cigarette sales, prices, and
other economic indicators, and effective policies to
counteract tobacco smuggling and other kinds of illicit
tobacco sales should be implemented in line with the
provisions of the FCTC Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade
in Tobacco Products. |
|---|