CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In developed and developing countries there are wide range of taxes and levies that affect individuals and companies, citizens and foreigners, manufacturers and marketers, workers and pensioners . In Nigeria taxes range from petroleum profits taxation to tenement rate imposition, and taxes are imposed at different levels to enable the government provide certain essential services and facilities to the population. Some of the issues involved are legal, economic, others are political, sociological, while others are historical.

The study will begin the appraisal by examining related taxes and levies applicable in Abia State and the legal instruments governing them. The government plays the piper and dictates the tune. Ogundele (1999:8) states that government intervention in an economy takes many forms. The degree of intervention differs from country to country, depending on the form of political model adopted in the governance of the country. The intervention referred to is tax, which in a well planned economy affects every aspect of human endeavour. On the subject of intervention which differs from one form of government to another, and the form of intervention, they either intervene for the wrong reason or adopt the wrong strategies when intervention is justified. Mbanefo (1999:21) posits that the implications of government tax intervention are many and will be expatiated in this study.

Anyanwu (1997:18) opines that fiscal administration is tax policy making and collection as well as expenditure programming at all levels of government. It involves the controlling, organizing, directing, monitoring, planning and management of government revenues and expenditure. Furthermore, the long term role of fiscal administration is to collect all registered taxes at minimum cost, as well as execute government programmes as efficiently as possible by avoiding waste.