Africa-Press – Gambia. Abstract
Background The prevalence of cigarette smoking in The Gambia is relatively high, compared with most African countries. Little is known about the characteristics of the smokers and their habits, particularly with regard to tobacco tax avoidance and tax evasion.
Methods A nationally representative survey of 1211 smokers conducted in November/December 2017 employed a three-stage stratified sampling method and resulted in 1205 complete observations. The sociodemographic characteristics and smoking behaviours were analysed, including smoking intensity and brand preferences. Information on the physical features of cigarette packs that smokers had, observed by enumerators, and self-reported cigarette prices were used to estimate the proportion of illegal cigarettes on the market.
Findings As in many African countries, most smokers were male, between the ages of 25 and 54 years living primarily in urban areas. The three most popular cigarette brands are Piccadilly, Royal Business and Bond Street, which account for over three-quarters of all cigarette purchases. Price information suggests that about 7.3% of smokers purchased an illicit cigarette at their last purchase. When smoking intensity was taken into account, 8.6% of the total cigarette market was estimated to be illicit. Using an alternative method of evaluating pack’s features revealed that only 0.9% of last purchases were illicit.
Conclusion Despite recent excise tobacco tax increases, the use of illicit cigarettes in the Gambia is low and does not represent a significant obstacle to reaching both the public health and fiscal goals of higher tobacco taxes.
Introduction
The Gambia is a West African country that is almost completely surrounded by Senegal, except for a narrow Atlantic coastline in the west. It has a population of about 2 million people, about 40% of whom are aged 15 years and under. Islam is the dominant religion, with approximately 90% of the population adhering to it. Smoking is relatively high. In 2013, adult daily smoking prevalence was estimated at 13%, compared with just 7% in neighbouring Senegal.
As in most African countries, current tobacco smoking prevalence is substantially higher among men than women (23% among men compared with less than 1% among women).
Tobacco use in the Gambia is more common among youths than among adults, particularly for girls. A 2017 study found that 25.7% of boys and 9.4% of girls between the ages of 12 and 20 years had ever smoked cigarettes, cigars or pipes. Among these, manufactured cigarettes were the most widely used (57.7%), compared with hand-rolled cigarettes (16%), cigars (13.7%) and pipes (12.6%). All tobacco products are imported primarily from South Africa (49%), Senegal (16%), Nigeria (11%), United Arab Emirates (UAE) (9%), Switzerland (8%) and Swaziland (6%).
Prior to 2013, The Gambia had a single-tiered ad valorem tobacco tax system based on weight (kg). This was changed to a specific excise tax system in 2013. An ad valorem tax is calculated as a proportion of the value of an item while a specific tax is a fixed charge for each unit of an item. According to the WHO, excise taxes accounted for 37.5% of the retail price of the most sold brand in The Gambia in 2016. Aside from excise taxes, other taxes levied on cigarettes include import duty, value-added tax, environmental tax, customs duty, an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) levy and an African Union (AU) levy.
In addition to changing the tax structure, the Government of the Gambia began to increase the tax rate. The plan was to implement annual tobacco tax increases over a 3-year period (between 2014 and 2016) in order to get closer to the regional average price for sub-Saharan Africa per pack of cigarettes, about US$1.24, equivalent to 38.86 Gambian dalasi (GMD), by 2016 (at 2012 prices). In 2016, building on the first series of increases, the country adopted another 3-year plan to increase the tax rate annually by GMD5 until 2019. The country’s success in raising tobacco taxes and government revenue, while encouraging smoking reduction, was recognised by the 2017 WHO Director General’s Award on World No Tobacco Day.
While tobacco taxation is arguably the most effective strategy to control tobacco use, its effect on the illicit tobacco trade is often debated. In many countries, the tobacco industry regularly claims that illicit trade is increasing as a result of higher tobacco taxes. The presence of an illicit cigarette trade could pose a serious threat to both public health and public finance by making cigarettes more affordable, counteracting restrictions on youth access, reducing government revenue and ultimately undercutting the ability of taxes to reduce consumption. On the other hand, the perpetual overstating of the role of tax in illicit trade by those opposed to higher tobacco taxes may distract from the tax’s effectiveness as a policy tool.
To date, little is known of the magnitude of the illicit cigarette trade in many African countries, including The Gambia. This study investigates the use of both licit and illicit cigarettes in The Gambia using data from a nationally representative household survey conducted among smokers in 2017. It aims to overcome the weakness of previous surveys, which did not provide a detailed account of adult smoking behaviour, including the use of illegal products. The study also addresses the general paucity of nationally representative data on cigarette prices and brand preferences.
Data and methods
The nationally representative survey relied on a three-stage cluster randomised sample selection of adult smokers (aged 18 years and above) using the 2013 Population and Housing Census as the sampling frame. The Gambia is divided into eight local government areas (LGA), and then further subdivided into census enumeration areas (EA). The LGAs were used as geographical strata and the EAs were the primary sampling units. Our sample was taken from 134 EAs, out of a possible 4000, proportionally selected across all LGAs, assuming a 95% CI, 10% margin of error, 95% response rate, design effect of 1.6 and 66 423 estimated number of households with a smoker. A selection of 20 households in each EA were interviewed, first using a household questionnaire to determine the presence of a smoker, and then subsequently using the individual questionnaire administered to a smoker. If there was more than one smoker in a household, one smoker was randomly selected from the eligible smokers listed on the household roster. Quality assurance was conducted by team leaders who reviewed forms completed by enumerators and by spot checks conducted by field coordinators. In addition, at data entry level, coders and entry clerks were supervised by staff of the Gambia Bureau of Statistics who also conducted the first round of data cleaning.
Weights are calculated as the inverse of the product of the selection probabilities of an EA, a household and an individual smoker within a household. The weights are then adjusted based on household and individual response rates. Response rates across LGAs are provided in table 1 of online supplementary material.
The data allowed us to explore the sociodemographic characteristics of individual smokers and their smoking behaviour, including smoking intensity, brand preference, source of cigarettes and, what, if any, other tobacco products they used. The prevalence of illegal cigarettes is estimated using two methods—an independent examination of the features of cigarette packs in the possession of smokers at the time of the interview, and a comparison of the self-reported unit price of a cigarette pack and the price of a legal pack.
Criteria for illicit cigarettes
According to the law, tobacco product packaging is expected to display one text message covering 30% of the front of the pack (‘Smoking Kills’) and another text message covering 30% of the back of the pack (‘Smoking Seriously Harms You and Others Around You’). A pack was also required to carry the wording ‘Sold in The Gambia’.
During interviews, smokers were asked to show the pack of cigarettes they had purchased. Enumerators then examined these packs to determine the presence of the three statements. A pack that did not have all three required statements was considered illicit. Since not all smokers had a pack at the time of the interview, we study the difference between those with and without packs in the online supplementary material.
We also compared the self-reported cigarette purchase price with a minimum threshold price determined by the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), based on the 2017 tax law. The following levies and taxes are included in the legal price: excise tax (GMD20 per cigarette pack of 20), import duty (20% of cost, insurance and freight (CIF)), value-added tax (15% of CIF), environmental tax (GMD2.42 per pack of cigarettes), customs duty (1.55% of CIF), an ECOWAS levy (1% of CIF) and an AU levy (0.2% of CIF). Based on these figures, the total tax per pack of cigarettes was estimated at GMD28.36 in 2017. It is reasonable to assume that all legal cigarettes would typically be sold for more than the sum of these taxes and levies. The threshold price was therefore set at GMD28.36 per pack—the minimum expected price per pack of 20 cigarettes of the cheapest brands on the market. Cigarette packs purchased below the minimum threshold price must have evaded paying taxes in the Gambia, because all purchases occurred in the Gambia.
Source: The Standard Newspaper | Gambia
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