The Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST Ghana) has challenged claims by Accra Brewery PLC that recent changes to the country's alcohol excise regime could put as many as 2,000 jobs at risk.

The civil society organisation has instead urged the Ministry of Finance to maintain an evidence-based approach to alcohol taxation and extend the current reforms to cover all categories of alcoholic beverages.

VAST Ghana said the company had not provided sufficient methodological details to substantiate the projected job losses, including the base year, price elasticity assumptions and the definition used to arrive at the 2,000-job figure.

The organisation consequently commended the Ministry of Finance for questioning the basis of the claim and urged the government to apply the same evidence-based standard to the broader debate on alcohol taxation.

Health costs

According to VAST Ghana, the debate should not focus solely on the economic contribution of the alcohol industry but should also take into account the wider health and social costs associated with alcohol consumption.

It cited the Ghana STEPS Survey 2023, which found that 22.6 per cent of adults aged 18 to 69 were current alcohol drinkers, with the proportion rising to 30.6 per cent among men. The survey also recorded higher current alcohol consumption among adults in rural areas, at 28.4 per cent, compared with 18.6 per cent in urban areas.

VAST Ghana further cited estimates putting the alcohol industry's contribution at about $369 million to Ghana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and approximately 52,000 jobs, while the wider societal cost of alcohol consumption was estimated at $1.2 billion annually.

The organisation said those costs were driven largely by health expenditure, productivity losses and road traffic injuries.

It argued that those wider costs should form part of the policy discussion when assessing the economic contribution of the alcohol industry.

Taxation as health tool

VAST Ghana also pointed to World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations supporting the use of alcohol excise taxes and pricing policies as measures for reducing alcohol-related harm.

It said WHO had identified increasing alcohol prices through excise taxation as one of the high-impact interventions for addressing alcohol-related harm, while warning that alcohol was becoming more affordable in many countries where tax systems had failed to keep pace with inflation and income growth.

On concerns that higher alcohol taxes could encourage consumers to turn to illicit products, VAST Ghana said such claims should also be supported by evidence.

The organisation cited WHO's review of alcohol taxation in the European Region, which, it said, found no automatic relationship between higher taxation and increased illicit alcohol consumption.

It therefore called for stronger enforcement, tracking, tax administration and market surveillance to address illicit trade rather than weakening health-related tax measures on the basis of unsubstantiated fears.

Call for wider reforms

As the government works towards the 2027 Budget Statement, VAST Ghana proposed a number of additional changes to the excise tax framework.

Among them is the extension of hybrid excise taxation to all alcohol products. The organisation said the current reforms under the Excise Tax Act 2026 apply only to wine and spirits, while alcoholic beverages more commonly consumed by lower-income groups remain subject to lower excise rates.

It also called for the repeal of the 20 per cent excise tax cut on fruit juices and a review of the definition of fruit juice to prevent possible loopholes.

The organisation further proposed higher tobacco excise rates linked to inflation and income growth, saying that would help preserve the real value of the tax and strengthen health financing.

It also called for the repeal of the excise tax on electronic cigarettes, arguing that the current provision creates a policy inconsistency with provisions of the Public Health Act 2012.

VAST Ghana's Executive Director, Labram Musah, said the country's growing non-communicable disease burden required sustained attention to policies capable of reducing preventable harm.

He said stronger alcohol excise taxation should be viewed within the broader objectives of protecting vulnerable populations, generating domestic revenue and reducing the long-term health and economic costs associated with alcohol use.

VAST Ghana consequently urged the Ministry of Finance and other relevant agencies to maintain what it described as the integrity of the excise tax reform process and align future measures with global best practices and WHO recommendations.