Adoption of Green, Carbon and Environmental Taxation in Nigeria: Revenue Generation and Economic Benefits Perspectives

Abstract

Tax revenue is one of the essential means through which the government controls the macroeconomy and plays a vital role in promoting environmental protection and sustainable development. This paper explores the adoption of green, carbon and environmental taxation in Nigeria: revenue generation and economic benefits perspectives. There is an uncertainty about the public acceptance of these taxes and subsequent difficulty in predicting the rate at which the pollution will fall if environmental taxes are implemented, it becomes expensive for governments to pursue environmental targets and thereby makes it difficult for firms and households to plan investment, production, and consumption activities. Regardless of this, it can be seen that environmental taxes are slowly gaining momentum in Nigeria. The main challenge is to design policy objectives and their instruments in such a way that the social costs of any inefficiency are minimized and a fair distribution of the burden are ensured. It is pointed out that Nigeria should introduce and develop the scope of taxation and adopt the method of "green tax" to cultivate taxpayers' green awareness. Thus, the policy framework needs to be systematically analysed for the successful design and implementation of environmental taxes. In conclusion, what can be said is that though the system of environmental taxation has turned quite a few heads in the direction of sustainable development in Nigeria, it is high time that a system of Green Tax is popularized in order to keep up with the global standards of environment protection.

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