Adoption of Environmental Taxation in Nigeria: The Perception of Stakeholders

Abstract

Nowadays environmental concerns are a central issue in most developed and developing countries. Pollution and climatic change are major challenges to man’s health and economic growth. Countries differ in approach to dealing with such problems. Specifically, the technologically advanced countries have always had their solutions for dealing with such problems, which in most circumstances are advanced types of solutions. However, developing countries occasionally become interested in finding solutions to these predicaments and hence this study is intended to assess the perception of stakeholders (policymakers, tax authorities, taxpayers, and the judiciary) on the adoption of environmental taxation in Nigeria. A survey method involving questionnaires was adopted for this study. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationships specified in the study. The study found that three groups (policymakers, tax authorities, and taxpayers) support the adoption of environmental taxation in Nigeria. On the other hand, the judiciary does not seem to support the adoption of environmental taxation in Nigeria. Accordingly, this study concludes that most of the stakeholders support the adoption of taxation in Nigeria as the adoption of environmental tax will be beneficial to the government as well as corporate organizations, especially in environmental conservation. Therefore, it is believed that the responses of the relevant stakeholders will lead to the emergence of environmental taxation in Nigeria specifically in the context of the transformation of the Nigerian tax system.