Taxes paid by manufacturers to the Federal Government rose by 60 per cent to N839.6 in 2022 from N524bn recorded in the prior year, according to findings by .
Data sourced from separate reports compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that manufacturing company income tax rose significantly in 2022 to N468.59 compared with N235bn in the corresponding period in the previous year, while VAT collected from the sector rose to N477. 43bn from N288.4bn in 2021.
The considerable increase in taxes by the sector comes amid several calls by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria for the government to reduce the taxes being collected from manufacturing firms to alleviate the impact of the economic downturn on them.
One major development tax-wise that plagued the productive sector last year was the introduction of an excise duty of N10 per litre on all non-alcoholic, carbonated and sweetened beverages in the country.
The charge was part of a new policy introduced in the Finance Act, which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 31, 2021, alongside the 2022 Appropriation Bill.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, while making the disclosure said that the new sugar tax was introduced to raise excise duties and revenues for health-related and other critical expenditures in line with the 2022 budget priorities.
Consequently, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and economic experts had warned that a new tax imposed on carbonated drinks would be counter-productive.
In a report titled “Key considerations against excise on non-alcoholic beverages,” MAN projected that the government might collect N81bn revenue from excise duty on carbonated drinks between 2022 and 2025, but lose N197bn within the same period from other taxes, such as Value Added Tax and Company Income Tax from the manufacturers of soft drinks.
The report added that introducing excise duty would cause the beverage sub-sector of the food and beverage industry to lose up to N1.9tn in sales revenue between 2022 and 2025, having adverse effects on jobs and supply chain businesses.
