The Kogi State government has contracted a consultant to levy every bread baked, with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry saying the levy is to improve the internally-generated revenue, (IGR).
However, bakers in the State, on the platform of the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) told newsmen that the bakers are against the levy.
A member of the association, Godfirst, said the association will meet with the consultant, noting that they received a memo from the ministry imposing a levy on each loaf of bread produced.
Meanwhile, the State government has debunked insinuations that what it introduced were fresh levies on master bakers, stating that rather, the levy has been in existence but only being about to be enforced.
The law, according to Commissioner for Information and Communication, Kingsley Fanwo, is targeted at bakers from outside the state who bring in the commodity without paying.
Fanwo, who made the clarification in a statement in Lokoja, the State capital yesterday, said the move was to protect indigenous bakers who suffer in the hands of those from outside of the states that come in to dump their products without paying levies.
He said contrary to what is being bandied around, the development is targeted at protecting the interest of the local establishments in the State.
