Project Outline and Expected Outcomes

TobTaxy is expected to increase the knowledge base in tobacco taxation and illicit trade amongst the tobacco control community.

Project Outline

The purpose of TobTaxY is to build capacity within the public health / tobacco community regarding taxation and smuggling issues. To achieve this aim, a multi-stage process was implemented:

• firstly, draft policy toolkits were created by tobacco taxation experts for 31 European countries:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

• secondly, the draft toolkits were used as part of the training material at five capacity building workshops located across Europe
• finally, using the experiences gained at the workshops, the toolkits were finalised for wider dissemination - click here

Expected Outcomes

Upon completion of the project, the following points are expected to be achieved amongst trainees of the Capacity Building Workshops and users of the advocacy toolkits:

• Increased understanding of the economics of taxation
• Increased understanding of different methods that can be applied in this area (e.g. method to estimate tax as share of price)
• Identification of resources and support (technical, human and financial) needed to implement the national advocacy plans
• Formulation of rebuttal arguments through skilled debate and strategic action
• Increased use and understanding of the HLY indicator (The "Healthy Life Years" indicator is now in the core set of the European Structural Indicators. This follows the Resolutions of the Lisbon European Council (20 to 23 March 2000)
• Increased number of visits and interaction between the public health community and the Ministries of Finance