The National Union of Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) has asked the National Assembly to speak up on its behalf to stop the excise taxes on carbonated drinks from going up further.
The union made the request in a letter that was sent to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday and was signed by Mr. Lateef Oyelekan and Mr. Mike Olanrewaju, who are the organization’s National President and General Secretary, respectively.
The letter was titled: ‘’Re: Excise Duties on Carbonated Drinks (The Unbearable Impact on Food, Beverages and Tobacco Industries: An Appeal for Immediate Abrogation Thereof)”.
The union leaders thought it was extremely timely to fervently appeal to House of Representatives members to join efforts to save the food, beverage, and tobacco sector, which would ultimately save the Nigerian economy.
They said that in light of this, the second phase of the charge on carbonated drinks should be halted and stakeholders should be called to consider whether the first phase, which had already been established, was viable or not.
‘’While we hope that this appeal will be found worthy of your kind consideration, we continue to assure you the deepest of our regards and unwavering solidarity, ‘’ the duo said.
They noted that no fewer than 5,000 Nigerian workers had been rendered redundant between January and September 2022 when the first phase of the excise duties was introduced till date.
They reveled that some companies were still contemplating redundancy exercise owing to the drastic reduction of their production capacity.
While most companies were seriously considering the possibility of relocating to countries where cost of production was bearably low.
‘’Manufacturers, for the fear of paying excise duties on products, which the market is no longer sustainable have drastically reduced their productions.
‘’Therefore, it is foisting possible reduction on their shareholders dividends and also impacting negatively on the Nigerian economy,” the leaders said.
The leaders expressed worry over foreign products now taking prevalence over those locally produced.
According to them, the price tag on both products are relatively the same and/or in most cases foreign products are readily available at cheaper prices.
“Survey in the last months has evidently placed the demand for foreign imported carbonated drinks over the locally-produced.
“This is largely on the ground of affordability in the foreign and/or imported carbonated drinks which is now ostensibly affordable and price friendly rather than the locally-produced ones.
“They enjoy greater patronage in detriment to our locally made products and this is attributed to the increment of price introduced by the manufacturers on their products.
“Also, the cause of these price increases are born out of introduction of the first phase of the exercise duty, for which the consequence inevitably lies with their respective customers and consumers to bear, ‘’both leaders said.