Hiking tax on alcohol could save lives, say university researchers

University researchers are proposing another tax...the proposal involves adding 15 cents onto every standard drink. Photo / File

Hiking excise tax on alcohol could save lives on the country's roads, university researchers say.

The study, from staff at University of Otago, Wellington, revealed that increasing the tax by 15 cents per standard drink would reduce alcohol sales by 4.3 per cent within 12 months.

It would then lead to a reduction in alcohol related injuries and deaths from road transport crashes.

The researchers used economic modelling to calculate the effect of a one-off rise in alcohol taxes on sales of beer, cider, wine, spirits and ready-to-drink products.

Professor Nick Wilson said high-risk drinking had increased significantly in New Zealand in recent years.

"Currently, around four out of five adults drink alcohol and around one in five of all drinkers consume hazardous quantities of alcohol. Road traffic crashes attributable to alcohol are primarily associated with this high-risk hazardous binge drinking behaviour."

The research, published in the international journal Injury Prevention, found reducing alcohol consumption from such a tax increase would result in 110 fewer deaths from traffic crashes and cut the cost of treating crash victims by $3.6 million.

Lead author of the study, Dr Linda Cobiac, said the reductions in health care costs were dwarfed by an estimated $240 million reduction in costs of other social harms.

Professor Nick Wilson says currently one in five of all drinkers consume hazardous quantities of alcohol. Photo / Supplied

"These are from lost production costs as a result of temporary disability, legal and court proceedings and vehicle damage," she said.

"This is likely an under-estimate as this model just focused on crash injury reduction benefits – the overall health and societal benefits would be much greater if reductions in other alcohol-related problems [such as cancer, liver disease, violence and child neglect] were included in the analysis."

Currently, the level of excise tax on alcohol varied depending on the product and alcohol percentage it contained.

Dr Anja Mizdrak, another study author, said increasing it by 15 cents per standard drink would bring New Zealand into line with the UK and Australia.

The researchers say the increase in tax would bring in additional revenue, which could be used to fund other measures designed to reduce harm from alcohol – or allow for cuts in other taxes, such as income tax or GST.

The research is published after the Tax Working Group urged the Government to seek input from public health experts to assess the health effects of alcohol consumption and the impact of alcohol abuse.