Northern Nigeria

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 863607721

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-45464

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Lugard, Frederick John Dealtry http://d-nb.info/gnd/117667412

Title:: Northern Nigeria

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Maj. Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1907

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (65 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

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TAXATION Oí' NATIVES IN NORTHERN NIGERIA. 21 furtherance of such a policy I would not be deterred by any initial loss of revenue. The tolls have yielded from a third to a half of the annual revenue, and it would, of course, be diffi cult to replace this sum (¿£40,500 last year), but even so great a loss might be preferable to a system radically unsound. But the greatest difficulty in abolishing them is a purely administra tive and technical one, which British merchants in Engand have no means of knowing. It is this : The traders are the wealthiest portion of the community, and their profits are said to be very large. They have reaped the greatest benefits from the introduction of peace and security, and the improve ment of roads, and they are able to pay cash, wnicfi can be credited to revenue without the difficulties inherent in payment in kind. So keen is the trading instinct among the Hausas, that already, as I have said, there is an undue tendency to desert the paths of productive industry and to go to and fro through the country carrying goods on their heads for the pleasure of making a profit by barter. The problem is, how can this class be taxed otherwise than by tolls ? And, so far, I have been unable to find a solution. They are a class of varying domicile ; often living a considerable time in one town and then in another. Many only casually engage in trade, and at other times are agriculturists, &c. At best, they are dwellers in the big cities, and in the present stage of development of the taxation question in Nigeria, the taxation of the great cities offers the most difficult problem of all. Even were this to some degree solved, how is an assessment of their tax-paying capacity to be arrived at? The methods familiar to those who live in civilised countries are altogether inapplicable here. Reference to Residents produces the unanimous reply that the thing is impossible. Such a scheme (they say) would be productive of the greatest difficulty and friction, and would involve much waste of energy, and when done would not produce one-tenth or, perhaps, one-twentieth of the sum realised by tolls. As it is agreed by the traders themselves that they are not over-taxed (and the Emirs say they are very lightly taxed), this would mean that the class best able to pay were, in fact, only paying one-tenth or one- twentieth of their proper share. I should not despair of find ing a solution before long, but until it is found the traders should continue to pay as at present. 21. I have pointed out, in my observations upon these tolls in my Annual Reports, that to some extent they operate as a preference to imports, since the bulk of the caravan trade consists of local produce which competes with imported goods, and that while the latter is subject to an ad valorem duty of 10 per cent, at the coast, the former, except for these tolls, would be untaxed. It might, perhaps, be urged in reply, that an exemption should then be made in favour of all imported goods which, having paid Customs, should be liable to no tolls. If this were done, however, the receipts would decrease,

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