The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) Tuesday urged the federal government to increase the SSB tax from N10 per litre to at least N130 per litre to reduce diet-related diseases, ease pressure on overstretched health systems and generate much-needed domestic revenue.
CAPPA also urged the federal government to increase the SSB tax so that it raises the final retail price of sugary drinks by 20 or 30 percent or ideally 50 percent, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations.
The executive director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, at a media roundtable on Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs), themed: “Time to Increase Sugary DrinksTax Now” in Abuja also called on government to increase the SSB tax from N10 per litre to at least N130 per litre.
Akinbode added that at N10 per litre, the current SSB tax rate amounts to just 1 percent of the average retail price, which is at least ₦1,000 per litre of sugary drinks sold in the country, adding that it is too minimal to influence consumer behaviour.
He said it also offers a practical way to expand Nigeria’s fiscal space without increasing broad-based taxes.
He further said as at a time when oil revenues are volatile and public financing needs are growing, modifying consumption habits while raising domestic resources is both efficient and equitable.
“Not too long ago, conditions like diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart diseases, and obesity were all rare and described as afflictions of big men and women.
“Today, they are snatching our fathers, crippling our mothers, sending young people to early graves, and draining the life savings of entire families.
“According to the WHO, NCDs now account for 1 in 3 deaths in Nigeria. They are no longer the diseases of the rich or the elderly, they are aggressively decimating our workforce, destabilising our families, and undermining national productivity,” he stated.