The Federal Government has announced a new Cigarette Tax regime that will see the price for a pack of 20 cigarettes increase from N58 to N80 while shisha will be taxed at N3,000 per litre.
This was revealed by Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, on Tuesday at the launch of the Tobacco Control Data Initiative Dashboard in Abuja.
He revealed that the new tobacco tax regime went into effect on the 1st of June.
What the minister is saying
The Minister stated that the new tax regime will see a 30% tax increase on cigarettes.
Mamora said, “With effect from 1st June 2022, the federal government of Nigeria has commenced implementation of a new three-year tobacco tax regime, which will end in 2024.
“This new regime increased the Ad-Valorem tax rate from 20% to 30%.
“In addition to the 30% ad-valorem, a specific excise rate has been increased from N58 to N84 per pack of 20 sticks of cigarette, and this will further be increased to N94 per pack in 2023; and then N104 per pack in 2024.
“Also, Shisha is now taxed at the rate of N3,000 per litre and N1,000 per kilogram and this will be increased yearly by N500,”
He stated that the pro-health tax is an effective public health control measure against behavioural risk factor
In case you missed it
- Earlier in December 2021, the World Bank urged the Nigerian government to impose special taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and sugar-sweetened beverages to help fund primary healthcare across the country.
- The World Bank Group Country Director for Nigeria, Mr Shubham Chaudhuri, speaking at a special National Council on Health meeting organized by the Federal Ministry of Health on Friday in Abuja noted that taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages would reduce the health risks associated with their consumption and expand fiscal space for universal health coverage post-Covid-19.
- He added that health tax increases would have the additional advantage of reducing future healthcare costs by curbing the growth of the non-communicable diseases that tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages cause.
- Recall Nairametrics reported that the Federal Government also revealed that it has started the implementation of a N10 per litre sugar tax on carbonated sugar drinks and beverages which they say will help combat Non-communicable Diseases.
- The policy was introduced in the Finance Act which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 31, 2021, alongside the 2022 Appropriation Bill.
