Tax Administration and the Crisis of Public Infrastructure Provision: Towards a Public Interest-Oriented Tax Policy Regime in Nigeria

Abstract

As a compulsory payment exacted from the people for government use, tax proceeds are expected to manifest basic social values for the citizens as well as representative as possible. The Nigerian context depicts infinitesimal applicability of tax revenue to the provision of social services in Nigeria. This performance crisis manifests in the absence of basic infrastructure, the tendency to evade tax payment and the impoverishment of the Nigerian people. The paper therefore, addresses fundamentally the implication of non-applicability of tax revenue to manifest social welfare concerns of citizens to show why tax evasion is common in Nigeria. It assumes frankly that fiscal administrators have deliberately lost track of the primary mission of taxation owing largely to personal interest, evidenced in corrupt practices. Obviously, we need therefore, to re align taxation to its primary objective. The starting point, the paper suggests, is the evolution of tax policy regime that is humanistic and grossly oriented towards providing social infrastructure for public benefit in Nigeria.  Keywords: Tax policy, public interest, public infrastructure