OPS: New Excise Bill Could Undermine Tinubu’s Fiscal Reform Agenda

Oriarehu Bonny

The Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPS), comprising the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) and the National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), has urged the National Assembly to withdraw the proposed amendment to the Customs, Excise and Tariff Bill and maintain the current excise rates on Non-Alcoholic Drinks (NADs) stating that the current draft of the bill is misaligned with the Federal Government’s fiscal reform direction and contains several legal and administrative gaps.

This was contained in the position paper presented by the Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPS) during the public hearing on the proposed amendment bill, which recently passed its second reading in the National Assembly.

OPS explained that the sector is committed to supporting government revenue and public health objectives. However, policies must be holistic, harmonised, and context-appropriate, ensuring that they improve health outcomes without undermining jobs, investment, affordability, or industrial stability.

The OPS maintained that Nigeria’s excise framework is increasingly fragmented, as new levies are introduced without coordinated assessment of their combined effects on production, investment, backward integration, employment, exports, and inflation, which may result in unintended consequences negating President Tinubu’s administration’s key economic reforms without delivering measurable public health gains.

It argued that a steep excise increase or introduction of a levy would impose substantial economic costs on businesses and consumers without delivering measurable public health gains.

OPS also warned that the amendment could weaken the beverage value chain, one of the country’s most significant contributors to non-oil revenue and a major employer.

According to the group, given that the beverage industry falls among the non-oil revenue contributors, passing the bill into law could undermine the administration’s ease of doing business objectives at such a sensitive economic period.