Comments about the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill (2020)

The sales ban and the associated cigarette price increases in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic, have given REEP an unprecedented insight into what levels of cigarette prices are possible, should the government decide to aggressively increase the excise tax.

Recently REEP wrote to Parliament’s Select Committee of Finance, where we argued for substantial increases in the excise tax on tobacco. See our letter here. Our letter was substantially informed by the sales ban experience. While our argument does not have universal support from the Select Committee, members from National Treasury were happy to “hear the other side” (i.e. not just the industry’s argument) of the tax debate, and have much sympathy for our views.