ABSTRACT
Federal systems by their nature are complex administrative designs because they involve multiple levels of government. Nigeria federal system is thus beset by a lot of complex challenges. One of such challenges is the seemingly implacable problem of revenue generation and distribution in the country.from 1960 till date the revenue generation and distribution system has not met the standard of revenue generation.
government is faced with varieties of difficulties to source adequate revenue from federal government, state government and the internally generated revenue, such problems are cogwheel to the smooth running of administration of revenue generation and distribution in nigeria. They are; the dishonesty on the part of officers collecting the revenues, such as cases of printing receipts by the officers had been the major problem in releasing the expected revenues. The machinery put in place for collection of revenue is inadequate hence, most of the government money are not collected and this is in case of the internally generated funds that is while, there need to review the revenue generation in Local government in Nigeria. The objectives of the study are: to review the problems revenue generation and distribution in Nigeria.
INTRODUCTION
Revenue is a major factor in the income statement of a country,as it gives an idea of the financial standing of the country.
The investopedia (2013) sees revenue as the amount of money that a company actually recieves during a specific period,including discounts and deductions for returned merchandise. It notes that for the government, the increase in assests of goverment funds do not increase liability or recovery of expenditure. This revenue is obtained from taxes lincenses and fees.
Revenue is an important tool of the fiscal policy of the government and it is the opposite factor of government spending (wikipedia 2012).
Generally, the world all over earns revenue from taxes, non-tax income and capital receipts. Determined to meet its part of social contract with the people, section 16 of the 1999 constitution of federal republic of Nigeria, under the economic objectives and directive principles, provides that government should control the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare,freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity. Section 16(b) of the same constitution further provides that the state without prejudice to its right to operate or participate in areas of the economy other than the major sectors of the economy, manage and operate the sectors of the economy.
Despite the lofty objectives of the country to promote the well being of all citizens, it has remained a far cry as the country wobbles from one economic woe to another: major sectors of the economy are underfunded. For example the power sector,education sector, agricultural sector, transport and aviation, manufacturing sector, minning etc are performing below expectation.
Many laws,policies,programmes,agencies and measures have been put in place to improve the revenue generation in nigeria, the result so far have remained a far cry as oil still accounts for over 70 percent of our foriegn exchange earner.
This pathetic situation raises fundamental question. What are the problems associated with the administration of revenue generation and distribution in nigeria. Answers to the above questions are the focus of this work