By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
Corporate Accountability and Participation Africa ( CAPPA) has called on government to increase Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSB) tax from N10 per litre to at least N 130 per litre .
It stated that this will reduce consumption and push manufacturers to reformulate their products.
The Executive Director of CAPPA Akinbode Oluwafemi made the appeal yesterday during a media roundtable on sugar -sweetened beverages ( SSB) tax yesterday in Abuja .
He said there is a need to increase SSB tax so that it raises the final price of sugary drinks by 20%-30 %or ideally work inline with the 50% recommendations by World Health Organization ( WHO).
Oluwafemi also urged the government to embark revenue for health care , NCD prevention, nutrition education , basic healthcare services in underserved communities and school feeding programmes .
He said a more robust SSB tax will reduce the consumption of sugar laden drinks , lower the incidence of preventable illness and improve national health outcomes.
“ It also offers a practical way to expand Nigeria’s fiscal space without increasing broad based taxes .
He also addressed the industry misinformation by saying that “ our investigation confirms that this so called ‘entity “is an unregistered with Nigerian cooperation authorities has no credible and verifiable track records of public health engagements whether locally of globally “.
He said some of the misconceptions includes tax will harm the economy and lead to job losses .
Others are the tax lacks transparency, SSB industries is critical to Nigeria’s industrial goals amongst other.
He emphasized that Nigeria cannot afford the cost of delay.
“ The time to act is now . A stronger SSB tax will saves lives ,ease the pressures on our fragile health system and generation much needed revenue to build a healthier , more prosperous nation .Let us choose health over profit . Let us choose the future over the past”, he noted .
Also speaking , Research Analyst in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, Augustine Iraoya said government
can invest in good public health . It is not just about to reducing the intake of SSB but to also address by caring for our citizens.
He said now is the right to increase the tax and do the right time .
“In our countries the impact is great ,base on the reason people are healthy to unhealthy lifestyle.”.
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