Local Government Revenue Generation through Responsive Legislation.
According to
Uche (2006) “money is the blood and soul of man and whosoever has non wanders
dead among the living.
Thus without
revenue a local government will wander dead among the living”. Revenue is
therefore, in the opinion of Pandy (1991)”the inflow of economic values from
business operation”. Accordingly, all the inflows (incomes) that get back to
the business, as rewards for the business operations, are regarded as revenue”.
Uche went further to state that Bye-Laws are very important in providing the
enabling legal environment for proper revenue generation at local government
levels.
Uche et al
(2003) asserted that “revenue are all tolls, taxes, imprests, rates, fees,
duties fines, penalties, forfeitures, rents, dues and all other receipts
of government, from whatever sources arising over which the legislation has
power of appropriation including proceeds from loans raised”.
To Amadi
(2010) “local government generates her funds through the following ways:
1. Statutory
revenue allocation
2. Rates
3. Fines
4. Fees,
charge and license
5. Loans
6. Grants
7. Miscellaneous
incomes
8. Licenses,
fees on television and wireless radio
9. Marketing
and trading licenses and fees
10. Motor park
duties
11. Advertisement
fees
Okwuegbu
(2008) state that “the major source of local government funds includes
statutory allocations from the federation account like the states and the
federal governments. In the same vein Okoli (2004) states that “the local
government has eight main sources of revenue namely: grants, statutory
allocation, fees and charges, fines, earring and profits, loans and
miscellaneous sources” while Ugoo et al (2007) state that “as one of its
independent sources of revenue, people residing within a local government area
pay some money to it in form of rate. Rate is thus, local tax of the local
government which is of three types namely: property rate, special rate and
capitation otherwise known as poll tax”.
According to
Investopedia “revenue is the amount of money that is brought into a company by
it business activities in the case of government, revenue is the money received
from taxation, fees, fines, inter-government grants or transfers,
securities sales mineral rights and resources right as well as any sales
that are made.
Rabiu (2004)
recently noted that the revenues that accrue to the local government are
derived from two bread sources, viz. the external sources and internal sources.
Olaoye et al
(2009) state that “external sources of local government finance include:
statutory allocation from the federation account in accordance with section 160
(2) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. Federal grants
in-aid, state grant in-aid borrowing from state government and other financial
institutions. while according to them “internally generated sources of finance
include local rates, market taxes’..
According to
Olaoye et al (opcit) the so called independent sources of revenue are not
really independent because they requires government authority before they can
be collected. No local authorities can increase the rate of local tax
(community tax). Independently there must be a legal provision for local fees
and all these are approved by government before inclusion in the estimates.
Consequently the following responsibilities are assigned to the local
governments in Nigeria viz. economic planning and development, health service,
land use, control and regulation of advertisements, pets, small business
markets, public conveniences, social welfare, sewage and refuse disposal.
Registration of births, death, marriages primary, adult and vocational
education, development of agriculture and natural resources.
Accordingly
“law shall apply to all occupants of various premises in all town and villages
that make up any local government areas as the council may direct from time to
time.
Olaoy et al
(opcit) also state that the impacts of internally generated revenue in local
government thus “the benefits people enjoy from the internally generated
revenue of the local government are:
1. Provision
of clean water for the people in the local government area.
2. Construction
of good roads for easy movement of transportation.
3. Provision
of well-equipped health centre in the community to reduced the death rate of
the people.
4. Provision
of free education in the community to reduce the level of illiteracy in the
society.
5. Stability
of electricity in the community.
Olayole et
al (opcit) also stated that “many of the problems facing the generation of
revenue in the local government are those that can be corrected to improve
their revenue generation. To Okpe (1998) “the internal revenue boards are
bedeviled with problems, which prevent them from efficiency until these
problems are solved, any revenue generation programme introduced will be short
lived. The major challenges according to Okpe facing revenue generation in
local governments can be summarized as follows:
i.
Absence of an effective management information system,
the revenue unit needs to develop a data-base such that information of tax
payers is readily available.
ii.
Incompleteness of information and data on taxable
entities and activities.
iii.
Absence of appropriate training schemes.
iv.
Fraudulent activities of the revenue officials.
v.
Tax evasion by all and those involved in it.
vi.
Inadequate equipment to handle tax activities in local
government matters.
Egowuam
(2001) rightly observed that the state governments have acquired the more
lucrative, elastic and collectable revenue sources leaving local governments
with generating low revenue sources which are administratively and politically
difficult to exploit in an environment where the vast majority of the people
are poor, self-employed and dispersed in rural areas.
Ogunna in Okoli (2004)
observed that “most rural markets and motor parks are not developed as they do
not yield revenue. In other words, most of internally revenue sources assigned
to local governments are underdeveloped or absent in most rural areas. The poor
states of our rural communities in search of jobs and decent life, which in
turn further impoverishes the rural areas in local government areas.
Responsive Legislation
According to www.wiki.answers.com. Responsive
legislation is the reply given to the document which is laid before the company
or firms for which the company has to either send back the necessary reply.
To www.wisegeek.com legislation can refer to
laws or the process by which they are enacted in certain countries. Many
countries have some forms of legislature, which is body dedicated
primarily to passing and amending laws.
According to Wikipedia, the free
Encyclopedia “legislation is law which has been promulgated or enacted by
legislation or other governing body, or the process of making it, before an
item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly
referred to as legislation while it remains under consideration to distinguish
it from other business, legislation can have many purpose to regulate, to
authorize, to prescribe, to provide (fund) to sanction, to grant, to declare or
to restrict.
According to Merrian Webster
(2012) “the exercise of the power and function of making rules (as law) that
have force of authority is by virtue of their promulgation by an official organ
of a state or other
organization.
To business dictionary
.com “it is the process through which status are enacted by a legislative body
that is established and empowered to do so”.
According to Wikipedia the free
Encyclopedia “bye laws are laws of local or limited application made by local
councils or other bodies.
Olaoye et al (opcit) “the bye
laws of local government discussed in this study are based on each source of
the local government as there are no general laws as regards local government
responsive legislation and local governments make efforts to legislate on the
following which they regard as important aspects of the administration. They
are:
i.
Tenement Rate: the law shall apply to all
occupants of various premises in all towns and villages that make up any local
government areas as the council may by order direct from time to time.
ii.
Market and Allied matters: the council may
establish a market at any place within the local government as it considers
necessary. No person shall sell or attempt to sell any goods or animal or carry
on any business or craft or act as a broker in any market unless he/she has
paid to the council the fees prescribed.
iii.
Liquor (licenses fees): the provisions of the
law shall apply to all towns, villages and settlements in the local government
area. The fees prescribed shall be payable. In respect of any license set out
under this law and may be reviewed from time to time by the council. It shall
be the duty and the responsibility of the officers of the revenue of treasury
department of the local government appointed for that purpose to collect the
taxes prescribed and payable under this law.
iv.
Abattoir and slaughtering of Animal: no
person shall slaughter an animal meant for sale except in a public slaughter
house and in accordance with the method specified either generally or
especially in respect of the animal by health officer. No
person shall slaughter an animal for sale unless he/she obtain a permit
authorizing the slaughter of the animal from a person appointed by the council
to issue slaughter permit.
The fees prescribed in the
schedule here shall be payable in respect of tenement of slaughter house,
license/permit issued for the opening of meat shop and slaughtering of animal
for sale, though each fee is subject to review from time to time in
keeping with the prevailing market value.