Objectives: This article deals with the comparison of excise tax revenues from alcoholic beverages and tobacco products with public spending that are spent on treating diseases occurring in consumers of these commodities.
Methods: Based on available data, the study estimates direct public expenditures on the treatment of tobacco-related diseases and very frequent alcohol consumption-related diseases in the Czech Republic. These partial results are evaluated in the context of tax revenues from consumption of the mentioned commodities. The analysis works with the data from 1998-2017, which was obtained from the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic, the National Institute of Public Health, the Customs Administration of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, and the Czech Statistical Office.
Results: Medical treatment costs of smoking-related diseases were 18.35-48.19 billion CZK per year in the analysed period. These expenditures in the period 1998-2011 exceeded the annual revenues from the tax on tobacco products (in 2002 by 12.08 billion CZK). Since 2012, the balance has been positive in favour of public spending. Expenditures on the treatment of alcohol-related diseases amounted to 9.66-25.36 billion CZK per year in the given period, the expenditures, except the year 1998, exceeded the revenues from alcoholic beverages taxes (by 14.63 billion CZK in 2009).
Conclusions: The study shows that the excise tax revenues for tobacco products do not reach the level of healthcare spending for tobacco-related disease in the most of the analysed period, and this difference increases with the length of consumption, which can be interpreted in such a way that current excise tax revenues potentially mean public healthcare expenditures, which cumulatively exceed revenues from the relevant excise duties.
Keywords: alcohol; excise taxes; health financing; tax revenue; tobacco.