The federal government has introduced a new tax of N10/liter on all non-alcoholic, carbonated, and sweetened beverages across the country.
The imposition is regarded as excise duty on the production, licensing, and sales of goods.
This was disclosed by the minister of finance, budget, and national planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Wednesday in Abuja during the public presentation of the 2022 Appropriation Act.
According to the minister, she stated that the new policy is in the Finance Act that was signed into law on December 31, 2021, by President Muhammadu Buhari.
She said apart from the new ‘Sugar Tax’ in section 17, the 2021 Finance Act also raised excise duties and revenues for the health sector.
She also said the excise duty on soft drinks would prevent unnecessary consumption of sugary beverages which contributes to diabetes, obesity among others.
In his explanation, Ahmed said, “There’s now an excise duty of N10/ per liter imposed on all non-alcoholic and sweetened beverages.”
“And this is to discourage excessive consumption of sugar in beverages which contributes to several health conditions including diabetes and obesity.
“But also used to raise excise duties and revenues for health-related and other critical expenditures.
“This is in line also with the 2022 budget priorities,” she added.
Recall in 2019, Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, had announced that the government may introduce excise duty on carbonated drinks.
Also in 2020, Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), had recommended the collection of excise duty on soft drinks.
He had also introduced the same proposal in 2021 at an interactive session on the 2022-2024 medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), organized by the house of representatives committee on finance.
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