Impact of E– Taxation on Nigeria’s Revenue and Economic Growth: A Pre – Post Analysis

Abstract  This study examined the impact of E-Taxation on Nigeria’s revenue and economic growth. Given that the purpose of introducing electronic tax system is to improve revenue collection which will in turn improve the country’s economic growth, the study empirically examined how the implementation of E-taxation in 2015 has affected Tax Revenue, Federally Collected Revenue and Tax-to-GDP ratio. The study made use of secondary data sourced from Federal Inland Revenue Service, and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical and Economic Reports on quarterly basis from second quarter 2013 to fourth quarter 2016. The data were divided into two: pre e-tax period and post e-tax period. Means of the two sets of data were compared using a pre-post technique called paired sample t-test. Findings from the study revealed that the implementation of electronic taxation has not improved tax revenue, federally collected revenue and tax-to-GDP ratio in Nigeria. However, findings revealed that Federally Collected Revenue and Tax-to-GDP ratio significantly decreased after e-taxation was implemented. Also, Tax Revenue decreased after the implementation but the mean difference was not statistically significant.It was recommended amongst others that federal government through the Federal Inland Revenue Services should conduct more enlightenment seminars in all 36 states in the country to increase the knowledge on the use of all electronic services on their platform.

Keywords  E-Taxation, Tax Revenue, Federally Collected Revenue, Tax-to-GDP ratio, Implementation.