Gambia: Could Taxes Ever Sustain Public Services?

editorial

Governments are established to provide public services, schools, hospitals, roads, electricity and water services, which cannot be provided by individual families. Hence, governments moblise resources in the form of taxation and service charges to be able to sustain and expand public services .

In a country like The Gambia where 49 percent of the population are living below the poverty line the tax base becomes very narrow because of low earning capacity. Hence Governments which depend on taxation must either expand the tax base to include the poor and thus make them poorer or increase the taxation of the rich and reduce their capacity to expand investments. Either way taxation cannot ensure sustainable development of public services.

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