CPC faces scrutiny over registration of manufacturing firms

The Organised Private Sector has criticised the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) over alleged steps by the council to embark on registration of products of local manufacturers.

Leading the criticism is the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), which saw this as duplication of work already done by other agencies.

“Our attention has been drawn to steps taken by the CPC to embark on the registration of products of manufacturing firms,” Remi Bello, president, LCCI, said during the chamber’s first quarter economic review held last Wednesday in Lagos.

“This exercise is a duplication of what is already being done by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC),” he said.

According to Bello, compelling businesses to register with the CPC is unnecessary and an additional regulatory burden on the private sector.

“We therefore call on relevant authorities to prevail on the CPC to discontinue this course of action. In fact, it is imperative for the incoming Federal Government to undertake a comprehensive audit of the regulatory environment to identify and eliminate all areas of overlapping functions of regulatory agencies,” he said.

The issue of over-regulation has continued to worry manufacturers and the business community. Over-regulation often comes by way of multiple taxes or demanding taxes that have already been collected by another agency or department. In one manufacturing firm in Lagos, over 21 different agencies came visiting, demanding various taxes, charges and levies.

Bassey Edem, acting national president, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), said multiplicity of taxes and over-regulation had been the bane of businesses.

“We always say that there is the need to stop multiple taxes. Businesses are already bearing a lot of burdens and multiplication of taxes only worsens our plight,” he said, during NACCIMA’s economic review held on Thursday in Lagos.

Similarly, members of the Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), during its visit to Frank Jacobs, president, MAN, said they were burdened by over-regulation from regulatory agencies, stressing that this put more pressure on cost of production and doing business.

Mahmud Othman, council member of LCCI and consultant for AG Leventis, said “Nigeria’s Constitution does not allow local governments to come up with taxes. It clearly specifies that if they must do so then they must consult the commissioner for local government and chieftaincy matters or the attorney-general.

“Decree No 21 of 1998 spelt out taxes payable to each level of government. There is a provision for a local government, because of its peculiarity, can come up with a specific levy. But due to indiscipline, local governments come up with all forms of taxes. But the Constitution is clear on what they should do if they need to come up with taxes.”

He lampooned local government authorities that visit public liability firms to demand for irrelevant charges such as radio and television fees, saying “the problem is that once you challenge them, they go to customary court.”