Consumers of non-alcoholic beverages may have to pay extra for their beverages as the Nigerian Customs Service Comptroller General, Ali Hammed, has requested the establishment of a carbonated drinks tax.

In the 2020 Finance Act, there is a provision for a tax on carbonated beverages.

Hammed stated on Monday that he had been fighting for the implementation of the law while testifying before the House Committee on Finance during the interactive session on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

He pointed out that the reason for levying a tax on alcoholic beverages was based on health concerns, stressing that carbonated beverages are just as damaging as alcoholic beverages in terms of health.

According to the Customs chief, multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola are operating in Nigeria without paying the necessary taxes.

“I have been on this battle that we should re-excise the companies that were de-excised in 2019—what we have been fighting for is that alcoholic beverages and tobacco are injurious to our health, that is why the government decided to tax them, the carbonated drinks are equally injurious to our health and they should be taxed,” Ali said.

He said, “I have sung this song for many years now, Coca-Cola is producing in this country and he is not being taxed, there is nowhere you go in the world that Coca-Cola is not paying tax to its host country, but Coca-Cola in this country is not paying anything. Because of the government’s unwillingness to re-excise those companies, for us, we have been battling for it, and I hope that one day, we will start collecting.”

The timing of this initiative coincides with the country’s experiencing double-digit inflation and growing food-price inflation.

Chairman James Faleke of the committee revealed that the committee will examine changing the Act to accommodate all beverages, including carbonated and non-carbonated beverages.