By Our Reporter
The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa (Rafsanjani), has called for the increase of tax for tobacco companies in Africa to reduce consumption.
Musa spoke during the launch and dissemination of a study report on Tobacco industry on illicit financial flows in Africa, profiling leading tobacco companies, their subsidiaries, domicile and revenue trends between 2010-2021 in South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Cote’s Ivoire, Ghana, Egypt and Morocco, in collaboration with Tax Justice Network Africa, TJNA, in Abuja.
Musa bemoaned the yearly death tolls as a result of tobacco-related diseases, adding that the tobacco industry has also added money laundering and corruption in the country.
According to him, we decided to carry out the study to show the consequences, the negative effects of the way or manner in which Tobacco companies are destroying the lives of Africans at the same time helping to pure corruption in Africa because some of them they have found ways of going to Africa’s legislature, Parliament’s, to bribe them so that they can have a soft landing legal framework.
“Some of them are working with some unpatriotic government officials across Africa to get tax relief; Tax waiver instead of taxing them on different appropriate taxes that can be used for the development.
“So, this is why we have been working closely with some of the government agencies to show them the implication of their activities. This multinational corporation in the name of the tobacco industry over the years has done a lot of harm to the health and well being of Nigerians and Africans.
“Tobacco is one of the forefront diseases that is killing Africans and Nigerians. At the same time, Nigeria is not able to meet even with the minimum budgetary allocation agreed by African leaders.
“Many countries in Africa are not able to meet up with that despite the commitment to the SDG sustainable development goals. So, we are lacking in health financing. We are having serious deficits in the healthcare system in our country in Africa. Our continent has continued to suffer the consequences of corruption as a result of illicit financial flow as well as tax evasion, tax avoidance, and corrupting public officials so that they can have their way.”
He, therefore, called for partnership with the Federal Government to provide alternative solutions to exploited Tobacco farmers.
On his part, Executive Director, TJNA, Alvin Mosioma, said the report is to help African countries put in place right tax policies to control the consumption of tobacco.
He said that tax structures in most African countries are not organised in such a way that it does not discourage the patronization of Tobacco products in the markets.
