“It Will Increase Mass Hunger”— NLC Rejects New N10 Tax On Soft Drinks - Nicole Kaima's Blog

Celebrity|Fashion|News|Gossips|Crime

Saturday, January 8, 2022

“It Will Increase Mass Hunger”— NLC Rejects New N10 Tax On Soft Drinks


Nigeria Labour Congress has kicked against the imposition of N10 per litre excise duty on non-alcoholic drinks by President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

 The Finance minister, Zainab Ahmed had on Wednesday, announced at the public presentation and breakdown of the 2022 budget in Abuja, that the new policy was aimed at “discouraging excess sugar consumption and tackling diabetes.”

READ ALSO: Mummy GO’s Son Breaks Silence On His Mother’s Viral ‘Hell Fire’ Memes


The NLC, in a statement by its president, Ayuba Wabba, asserted that the new tax policy will result in the increase of retail prices of drinks, which will, in turn, affect the demand. 

In the statement titled, ‘Nigerian workers reject the imposition of excise duties on locally produced carbonated drinks’, Wabba urged the president to suspend the implementation of the excise duties on non-alcoholic, carbonated and sugary drinks. 

 “Our concern is the mass hunger that would result from the slightest increase in the retail price of soft drinks owing to the imposition of excise duties as it would be priced beyond the reach of many Nigerians,” Mr Wabba said. 

 “It will impose immense hardship on ordinary Nigerians who easily keep hunger at bay with a bottle of soft drink and maybe a loaf of bread.” 

Also, Mr Wabba said the congress was alerted by the “complaint of manufacturers of soft drinks in Nigeria that the re-introduction of excise duties would lead to very sharp decline in sales, forced reduction in production capacity, and a certain roll back in investments with the certainty of job losses and possibly shut down of manufacturing plants.” 

 He recalled that tyre manufacturing companies such as Dunlop and Michelin had relocated to Ghana in the past, after the government ignored their complaints, warning that a similar event may play out if the government fails to pay attention. 

According to him, with 38 per cent of the entire manufacturing output in Nigeria and 22.5 per cent share representation of the entire manufacturing sector in Nigeria, the food and beverage industry is the largest industrial sub-sector in our country. 

READ ALSO: 6 Strange Birds Found Dead On The Lord’s Chosen Church Alter (Video)


 “The food and beverage sub-sector has generated to the coffers of government N202 billion as VAT in the past five years, N7.3 billion as Corporate Social Responsibility and has created 1.5 million decent jobs both directly and indirectly. 

 “In light of the foregoing, we ask the National Assembly to quickly amend the sections of the Finance Act that re-introduced excise duties on non-alcoholic and carbonated drinks,” he said.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading, you can leave a comment below

'; (function() { var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text/javascript'; dsq.async = true; dsq.src = '//' + disqus_shortname + '.disqus.com/embed.js'; (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq); })();