According to Dike Onwuamaeze, businesspeople and economists have expressed concern that the 2023 Fiscal Policy Measures may bring about the demise of the tobacco and brewery businesses. “Segun Kadir-Ajayi, the director general of MAN, said bluntly that “the manufacturing sector is under siege.
“In a same vein, Mr. John Musunga, the Chief Executive Officer of Guiness Nigeria Plc, claimed that the increase in the excise charge that was affected was enormous because “we are talking about 200 to 300 percent hikes.
The Chairman of Nigeria Breweries Plc, Mr. Asue Ighodalo, added his voice to the rising clamour for the suspension of the 2023 FPM and pleaded with the federal government to refrain from destroying the productive sector of the economy in an illusory effort to raise tax revenue.
He felt that the government need to sit with its economists and look at the tipping point where this increase would led to much lower taxes in VAT, company income tax (CIT), education tax, etc.
“He warned that the government is introducing a policy whose unintended consequence would precipitate a sharp decline in the flow of foreign direct.