NUFBTE urges House to block CETA Bill, warns of worker burden
NUFBTE President Comrade Garba Dankama has sent an open letter to Speaker Abbas Tajudeen urging the House of Representatives to withhold concurrence on the Customs, Excise Tariffs, Etc. (Consolidation) Amendment Bill, 2025 (CETA Bill). The bill seeks to replace the current ₦10‑per‑litre specific tax on soft drinks with a percentage levy based on the retail price of each litre. Dankama warned that passing the bill now would add another burden to Nigerian workers and the manufacturing sector already strained by fuel subsidy removal, foreign exchange reforms, high borrowing costs, rising energy and logistics expenses, limited forex access, and weakened consumer purchasing power. He noted that capacity utilisation across manufacturing has fallen sharply, with many production lines scaled back or shut down. The non‑alcoholic drinks (NAD) sector, which supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in farming, haulage, distribution and retail, cannot absorb a further tax increase without triggering closures, retrenchments and a collapse of the value chain. Dankama added that workers’ incomes have not kept pace with rising transport, food, housing and other essential costs, and that a percentage‑based tax would raise producers’ costs amid global commodity volatility, leading to higher prices, weaker demand and more factory closures. He argued that taxing a product that accounts for only about 5 % of national sugar intake would deliver little public‑health benefit while pushing consumers toward cheaper, unregulated alternatives and jeopardising the livelihoods of over a million Nigerians. He expressed confidence that the House would protect workers’ interests amid the current economic difficulties. Will the House heed the union’s warning and reject the CETA Bill to protect jobs, or will it move forward with the percentage‑based levy despite the warned risks to workers and industry?