The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said that the recent increase in excise duty for beverage and tobacco goods will force businesses to scale down operations, which will result in factory closures, job losses, a decline in exports among others. MAN President, Francis Meshioye, stated this on Tuesday during a press conference held in Lagos to raise objections on the recently published 2023 Fiscal Policy Measures.
According to him, the excise duty hike is a flagrant reneging of a promise made to the association by the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on March 23, 2023, he said the exponential increase in excise duty in the 2023 Fiscal Policy Measures came as a shock to the industry and was, in effect, ‘an increase on an increase’, since there was already an approved increase in place for 2023.
MAN President further averred that the increase was coming at a time when the manufacturing sector was immersed in unprecedented crisis and an acute recession, due to extraordinary challenges, namely sustained scarcity of naira, limited access to foreign exchange, high inflation and a struggling economy.
