FG May Introduce Excise Duty on Soft rinks
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Thursday gave an indication that the federal government may soon introduce excise duties on soft drinks.
Ahmed who spoke to newsmen during the ongoing World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC, United States, said this was one of the ways to broaden revenue in the country.
Among the soft drinks of carbonated drinks being targeted include those of Coca Cola, Sprite, Fanta and others,
According to her, this was apart from the planned increase in Value Added Tax (VAT).
However, she added that the federal government would consult stakeholders before the new measures.
She said, “Any tax that you are introducing will involve a lot of consultations and also amendments of some laws or introduction of new regulations.
“The government is trying to ensure that the work of the agencies are complementing each other as opposed to the past where everybody is working in silos.
“Efforts are ongoing to improve the monitoring performance of the revenue-generating agencies, especially government-owned enterprises.
“We have now in place a rigorous monthly reconciliation of revenues and that is ensuring that the leakages are minimised.
“There is several cost-cutting measures in the SRGI and a number of cost-cutting measures initiatives such as innovation and automation as well as capacity building of our people.”
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