The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has suspended plans to impose excise duties on manufacturers in Nigeria.
CEO of CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf made this known in a in a document titled, “CPPE calls for suspension of planned imposition of excise duties on manufacturers”
This is coming weeks after the Finance Minister, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, warned that excise duty would be levied on a variety of manufactured commodities in the country soon.
However, the Centre has observed that manufacturers are already facing extremely difficult times as a result of growing energy costs, rising operational expenditures, currency depreciation, forex market illiquidity, galloping inflation, and various structural challenges.
Dr. Muda Yusuf pointed out that manufacturers are also experiencing significant spikes in the cost of raw materials, cost of funds, high import duty, the prohibitive cost of transportation and high cost of logistics; noting that a huge proportion of the costs cannot be passed on to the consumers because of weak purchasing power and high consumer resistance.
According to him, the manufacturing sector offers good prospects for job creation and lifting more Nigerians out of poverty stating that if the burden of tax becomes excessive and unbearable on the critical sector, the realisation of the outcomes by the government would be difficult.
He, therefore, emphasised that the manufacturing sector needs stimulus and not tax imposition.
The CEO of CPPE also noted that Nigerian manufacturers are battling with unfair competition, withproducts imported from Asia, as a result of the porosity of the country’s borders. Due to these concerns, the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise has called for the halt of the planned imposition of excise duties on manufacturers.
