The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has asked the federal government to halt its plans to reintroduce excise tax on locally produced non-alcoholic and carbonated drinks.
This is as the labour union has warned that the beverage sub-sector will be losing sales revenue of about N1.9 trillion as well as Company Income Tax, VAT and Tertiary Education Tax of N197 billion as against the total projected receipts of N81 billion to government.
This disclosure was contained in a statement signed by the NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, on Friday in Abuja, which was made available to the press.
NLC, who asked the National Assembly to urgently amend the sections of the Finance Act which re-introduced excise duties on non-alcoholic and carbonated drinks, said that implementing the increased taxes will impose more hardship on Nigerians as well as possibly lead to loss of 1.5 million jobs.
It cautioned the federal government not to allow the current situation to degenerate into a breakdown in industrial relations in the sector and generally in the country, noting that the food and beverage sub-sector has generated the coffers of government N202 billion as VAT in the past 5 years.