By Merit Ibe [email protected]
President of Manufacturers Assiocation of Nigeria (MAN), Mansur Ahmed, has lamented that many government policies are compounding the nation’s already challenging operating environment for manufacturers.
Ahmed, who made the remark in Lagos noted that the economy continues to experience slow growth, with policy makers compounding the situation by introducing new taxes.
“It is indeed a matter of great concern to our members that even as our economy continues to experience slow growth, our policy makers at all levels continue to compound the situation by introducing new taxes, further worsening the difficult and high-cost operating environment. In some societies, when the economy slows down government reduce taxes to encourage businesses to expand, create more jobs and increase economic activities. What we are seeing in Nigeria today is that government is not just increasing tax rates, but introducing new taxes and turning every public agency into a revenue collector.”
He said in the last 30 years, peer countries have overtaken Nigeria in the area of industrialisation while the country has stagnated and even gone backwards industrially.
The MAN boss stated that there was need to take stock of the nation’s journey to industrialisation, to ascertain the pains and gain-points; to highlight the performance limiters; recognise the milestones and to identify the learning curves and hurdles ahead, with a view to crafting a robust agenda for resetting industrialisation, albeit manufacturing in Nigeria.”
Reacting to the imposition of excise duty on non-alcoholic drinks, he said it was the wrong time to have it done.
“What is most painful is that the increase in excise on new products only started this year, so it will amount to changing the goal post in the middle of the game. We have a three-year plan on the escalation of excise duty, all that was thrown into the dustbin and a new and higher one was introduced, targeted to killing the industry. This should be rescinded immediately and that is the only way this sector can survive,” he said.