Business

NLC rejects new tax on carbonated drinks

Published

2 years ago

January 8, 2022 7:45 pm

BodexNG

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has rejected the federal government’s introduction of N10/litre on all non-alcoholic, carbonated and sweetened beverages.

Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, had announced the new tax on Wednesday.

Ahmed said the new tax would raise revenue for health-related and other critical expenditures.

But in a statement, Ayuba Wabba, president of NLC, wondered why the government did not place the excise duties on sugar itself as a commodity rather than on carbonated drinks, adding that the health reason proffered by the government for the re-introduction of the excise duties “seems altruistic”.

He said the tax would impose more hardship on the people, especially on “ordinary Nigerians who easily keep hunger at bay with a bottle of soft drink and maybe a loaf of bread”.

“Our concern is the mass hunger that would result from the slightest increase in the retail price of soft drinks owing to the imposition of excise duties as it would be priced beyond the reach of many Nigerians,” Wabba said.

“Congress was also alerted by the complaint of manufacturers of soft drinks in Nigeria that the re-introduction of excise duties would lead to a very sharp decline in sales, forced reduction in production capacity, and a certain roll back in investments with the certainty of job losses and possibly shut down of manufacturing plants.

“Nigerians would recall that this was also the complaint of tyre manufacturing companies such as Dunlop and Michelin which was overlooked by the government until the two companies relocated to neighbouring Ghana.

“A similar situation is playing out with the soft drinks manufacturing sub-sector. Government should pay attention.

“With 38% of the entire manufacturing output in Nigeria and 22.5% share representation of the entire manufacturing sector in Nigeria, the food and beverage industry is the largest industrial sub-sector in our country. The food and beverage sub-sector has generated to the coffers of government N202 billion as VAT in the past five years, N7.3 billion as Corporate Social Responsibility, and has created 1.5 million decent jobs both directly and indirectly.

“There is thus no gainsaying the fact that the industry is a golden goose that must be kept alive.”

Business

FAAN begins sale of e-tags at airports

Published

18 hours ago

May 17, 2024 11:59 am

BodexNG

The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has begun the sale of electronic tags (e-tags) at airports.

In a statement on Friday, FAAN said this initiative is in line with the presidential directive that mandates the use of e-tags for accessing the nation’s federal airports.

“Following the presidential directive that all citizens are mandated to pay for e-tags at all the 24 federal airports across the country, we wish to inform the general public that the e-tags are available for sale from Friday, 17th May, 2024 at the following locations,” FAAN said.

“Lagos: Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, Terminal 1, 5th Floor) Office of HOD Commercial. Contact: 08033713796 or 08023546030.

“Abuja: Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, HOD Commercial Office (General Aviation Terminal) Contact: 08034633527 or 08137561615.”

FAAN said there will be an option to pay in cash at the access gates for motorists without e-tags.

On May 14, Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation, announced everyone, including the president and vice-president, would pay tolls at the nation’s airports.

Keyamo said the government was losing over 82 percent of the revenue it should have earned from the access fee.

Business

Emirates Airlines return to Nigeria October 1

Published

2 days ago

May 16, 2024 12:45 pm

BodexNG

Emirates Airlines has confirmed its return to operations in Nigeria starting October 1, 2024.

The airline disclosed this via its official X handle Thursday.

“We’re back, Nigeria! We’ll be resuming services to Lagos from 1 October 2024, and we can’t wait to offer unrivalled connectivity to Dubai and beyond to over 140 cities,” the tweet read.

The airline will be operating a daily service between Lagos State and Dubai, and will offer customers more choice and connectivity from Nigeria’s largest city to, and through, Dubai.

Business

Naira appreciates at official window, depreciates at parallel market

Published

2 days ago

May 16, 2024 8:33 am

BodexNG

The naira depreciated to N1,550 against the dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday.

The current FX rate signifies a decline of 1.95 percent from the N1,520/$ reported on May 13.

Currency traders, also known as street traders, in Lagos, quoted the buying rate of the local currency at N1,510/$ and the selling rate at N1,550/$ — leaving a profit margin of N40.

At the official window, the local currency appreciated by 4.21 percent against the dollar from N1,520.4/$ on May 14 to close at N1,459.02 on Wednesday.

According to FMDQ Exchange, a platform that oversees the official window, a dollar was sold as high as N1,593 and at a low rate of N1,401 during trading hours.

The daily foreign exchange market turnover was $289.14 million.

On May 14, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said foreign missions based in Nigeria use third parties to transact in foreign currencies.

Speaking during an interview, Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s acting director of public affairs, said the commission has a task force whose duty is to fight the abuse of the naira and discourage transactions in dollars within Nigeria — which is against the law.

Bodex F. Hungbo, SPMIIM is a multiple award-winning Nigerian Digital Media Practitioner, Digital Strategist, PR consultant, Brand and Event Expert, Tv Presenter, Tier-A Blogger/Influencer, and a top cobbler in Nigeria.

She has widespread experiences across different professions and skills, which includes experiences in; Marketing, Media, Broadcasting, Brand and Event Management, Administration and Management with prior stints at MTN, NAPIMS-NNPC, GLOBAL FLEET OIL AND GAS, LTV, Silverbird and a host of others