The Nigerian government has introduced an excise duty of N10/litre on all non-alcoholic, carbonated and sweetened beverages, a move that will hike the price of popular soft drinks across the country.
Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, said this during the public presentation of the 2022 Appropriation Act on Wednesday in Abuja.
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According to her, the new policy introduced is in the Finance Act signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 31, 2021.
In 2020, Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), had proposed the collection of excise duty on soft drinks.
He had also put forward the same proposal in 2021 at an interactive session on the 2022-2024 medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), organised by the house of representatives committee on finance.
The minister said the excise duty on soft drinks would discourage excessive consumption of sugar beverages which contributes to diabetes, obesity among others.
“There’s now an excise duty of N10/ per litre imposed on all non-alcoholic and sweetened beverages,” she said.
“And this is to discourage excessive consumption of sugar in beverages which contributes to a number of 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.”
