菸稅及貨物稅改革對公平與效率之影響評估

THE EFFECT OF CIGARETTE AND COMMODITY TAX REFORM ON EQUITY AND EFFIENCY

黃雅靖(Ya-Ching Huang)

指導教授 ： 孫克難

國立臺北大學/公共事務學院/財政學系/碩士(2009年)

摘要

觀察我國《行政院主計處家庭收支調查報告》，平均每人香菸消費支出只增不減，鑑於政府對於落實菸害防治工作成效不彰，加上我國香菸平均稅率比起高所得國家香菸稅負仍屬偏低，故研究學者普遍認為，我國菸稅仍有調漲的空間。若欲朝向提高菸稅之改革方向，需同時搭配與菸稅屬於間接稅性質之貨物稅併行改革，以符稅收中立原則。

由於我國貨物稅部份項目之課徵，已不合時宜。飲料品、電器類等貨物稅項目早期多為高所得者所消費，於現今環境下已不再視為奢侈品。且行政院財政改革委員會已於2003年4月提出租稅改革方向建議，應取消飲料、平板玻璃及電器等一般民生必需品的應稅項目，僅保留對「油氣類」、「車輛類」等具污染性的貨物課稅。

本文將採用Ahmad and Stern(1984)之資金邊際成本模型，站在公平與效率面立場，評估邊際商品稅改革方向，且視實證結果是否支持政府取消部份貨物稅而提高菸稅，以期達到使國人戒菸減量之目的。同時，將其稅收用來取代部份具扭曲之貨物稅項目。
本文實證結果支持取消飲料品及電器類貨物稅之改革方向，並可以加重菸品課稅，增其財源，在稅收中立性下進行改革：於效率面，提高香菸稅所造成之資金邊際效率成本皆小於飲料品與電器類;加入分配特性考量後，整體方面，亦認為提高香菸稅之資金邊際成本仍為三者中最小，故政策建議應該再提高菸稅，且配合降低稅率甚至取消飲料品以及電器類課稅，以期達到符合效率並兼顧公平之稅改方向。

關鍵字

菸稅 ； 貨物稅 ； 公平與效率 ； 資金邊際成本模型

並列摘要

Since the government ineffectively carries out the smoking prevention program, the domestic cigarette expense per person continuously increases. In addition to that, the local cigarette tax remains lower comparing to other high-income countries. As a result, the scholars generally believe the local cigarette tax rate still leaves a room for increment. To increase the cigarette tax, the indirect tax of the commodity taxes act must be revised as well in order to comply with the neutral tax principle.
As some of the local commodity taxes categories are irrelevant and the Finance Reform Committee has proposed the tax reform recommendation for eliminating the tax of beverage, flat glasses, electric equipment and other necessary goods. This study uses the Ahmad and Stern’s (1984) Marginal Cost of Funds to evaluate the tax reform direction of the margin commodity based on a equity and efficiency viewpoint and to see whether the empirical research result supports the government to reduce part of the commodity taxes and increases the cigarette tax to achieve the objective for people to quit smoking or smoke less cigarettes.
The empirical research result indicates that the Marginal Cost of Funds with cigarette tax increment is less than the beverage and electric equipment categories with regard to the effectiveness. After taking the distribution character into consideration, it is believed that the Marginal Cost of Funds with cigarette tax increment remains the lowest among the three categories. Based on the finding, it is recommended that the cigarette tax should be increased along with the reduction or elimination of beverage and electric equipment taxes to meet with the efficiency and equity tax reform direction.

並列關鍵字

cigarette tax ； commodity tax ； equity and efficiency ； Marginal Cost of Funds.

參考文獻

行政院衛生署國民健康局菸害防制專區網站：http://tobacco.bhp.doh.gov.tw/,(2009年3月26)。

李家銘、葉春淵、黃琮琪 (2006)，「菸價要調漲多少：菸品健康福利捐課徵對香菸消費的影響效果」，《人文及社會科學集刊》，第18卷，第1期，頁1-35。

李家銘、葉春淵、洪榮耀 (2007)，「香菸及檳榔課稅效果之研究」，臺灣公共衛生雜誌，第26卷，第1期，頁17-25。

Ahmad, E. and Stern, N. (1984), “The Theory of Reform and Indian Indirect Taxes,” Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 25, pp.259-98

Ahmad, E. and Stern, N. (1991) “The Theory and Practice of Tax Reform in Developing Countries,” Cambridge: Cambridge university Press.