The Federal Government may exempt micro, small, and medium-sized businesses from the recently reintroduced N10 per litre excise charge on carbonated beverages, according to Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Minister of Trade and Investment.Infomation Guide Nigeria
This was said by the minister during Thursday’s Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Export Promotion Group Annual General Meeting in Lagos.
According to him, the office of the Ministry of Trade and Investment was willing to collaborate with the relevant government authorities in order to remove the obstacles facing the productive sector.
When asked why the Federal Government had turned a blind eye while MSMEs were placed on the same tax and duty footing as multinational corporations, the Minister stated that his ministry will seek to lessen the burden on small and micro–scale businesses.
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“Write to me officially, we will engage the Ministry of Finance and see what kind of intervention we can get for MSMEs. Government policy is always to assist, so if we see anything that will be a problem for them, we’ll see what we can do to address those problems.”
The offer of assistance by the Minister followed prior protests by MSMEs operators who claimed that the reintroduction of excise duty had caused manufacturing costs to soar.
The operators of MSMEs involved in the production of carbonated drinks said that it would cost a single operator N4.8 million per year to complete the registration process and comply with other necessary fees imposed by the Nigeria Customs Service.
In an exclusive interview with The PUNCH, Segun Kuti-George, the immediate past president of the Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industrialists, criticised the Federal Government’s proposal to impose a N10/litre tax on carbonated drinks for all manufacturers.
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