By Dr. Justice Chidi
A lot of public conversations within Enugu have centred on the phrase “tax increase.” This often provokes negative feelings and resentment amongst the people.
To many, tax payment feels like penalty rather than contribution. And when disposable income is low, taxes, no matter how friendly, feel like a burden.
But what if the core issue is less about increament and more about how taxes are collected. Governor Mbah’s administration has not hiked tax rates but has essentially streamlined the tax system by widening the net and plugging leakages.
The focus has been on compliance, not increament.
Governor Mbah has consistently emphasised that his administration did not increase the tax rate. He has, on many occasions, clarrified: “We have not increased tax in Enugu State.
What we have essentially done is the expansion of the tax net. We have also made sure that monies that were collected in cash before now are now adequately captured and paid into the state coffers.”
Mbah’s government saw to the passage of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service Law, 2025, which created a single-point revenue aggregation agency to end multiple taxation and redundant channels of collection.
It also introduced e-payments and electronic tax filing, which replaced or reduced entirely manual and cash-based collections, which, in turn, reduced the chances of leakages.
This does not necessarily amount to increament. It is only a conscious strategy that brought into the tax net previously non-compliant individuals. Those who had not been paying or were outside formal systems have been made to start paying, and, as expected, it feels strange.
However, given the economic situation in the country, the reality is that there was no tax increament in Enugu, but only plugging of leakages, which still does not sit well with some people.
In response, as would a listening government, Governor Mbah’s administration has formed a multi-stakeholder committee to review the tax system and address taxpayer concerns.
A take-home from the present administration is that the enhanced revenue is not being trapped in consumption or recurrent expenditure. It is visibly channelled into large-scale public investment across infrastructure, education, health, and security.
When I see international conference centre, the world- class conference centre hotel, smart green schools rising in the 260 electoral wards, the dualisation of Abakpa-Ugwogo, Opi-Agu road, the type-2 primary healthcare centres across the 260 wards, what I see is the taxpayer’s money being utilised for public good.
The deployment of revenue into visible infrastructure is at the heart of social contract.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose idea provided the philosophical foundation for modern taxation, asserts “social contract implies that citizens contribute to the state through taxes, and the state, in return, guarantees their welfare and justice.”
This implies that it is the duty of the citizens to pay taxes and to also hold the government accountable for how such monies are utilised.
