President Buhari’s new alcoholic drinks and tobacco excise duty takes effect from tomorrow

The new excise duty for alcoholic beverages and tobacco earlier approved by President Muhammadu Buhari will take effect from Monday, June 4, 2018.

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, in March announced that the president had granted a grace period of 90 days to manufacturers of the products.

Adeosun said the new excise duty rates would spread over a three-year period from 2018 to 2020 in order to moderate the impact on prices of the products.
According to her, the upward review of the excise duty rates for alcoholic beverages and tobacco was to raise the government’s fiscal revenues.

She said that it would also reduce the health hazards associated with tobacco-related diseases and alcohol abuse.

Adeosun said the new duty rate on tobacco was a combination of the existing ad-valorem base rate and specific rate while the ad-valorem rate was replaced with a specific rate for alcoholic beverages.