Professor of Accountancy and Taxation, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, has warned that things will continue to degenerate all over the country unless equilibrium is restored in tax administration.

Ihendinihu stated this while delivering the 62nd inaugural lecture of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture entitled “Entropy of Injustice: A Derivative of Thermodynamics in Tax Administration”.

According to him, injustice could also manifest when there is mismanagement of tax collection.

The don noted that non-provision of essential public services with tax revenue amounts to extortion and felonious theft.

He, however, said that tax evasion and avoidance were tantamount to robbery of state funds and self.

According to him, in human governance, particularly tax administration, entropy means societal disorder resulting from injustice, corruption, evasion, inefficiency, multiple taxation leading to economic instability, inequality, and public mistrust.

“Tax systems tend towards disorder/entropy leads to tax injustice without interventions. Tax injustice is a systematic inequality in the tax system that leads to tax burdens often being disadvantageous to certain groups while favouring others.

“Tax injustice can also manifest in the misallocation of tax revenue, where public funds are not equally distributed to provide essential services to the marginalised populations,” Ihendinihu stated.

He spoke just as the Federal Government stated that the new tax law was fairer and more beneficial to ordinary Nigerians, saying that it reduced the burden on small businesses and low-income earners, and strengthened Nigeria’s revenue system.

In a statement, which The Guardian obtained a copy of in Abakaliki, yesterday, the Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, South-East region, Chioma Nweze, told participants this during a sensitisation forum held on Saturday at the International Conference Centre, Enugu.

He told participants, mostly women, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is determined to make the tax reform package fairer and more beneficial to ordinary Nigerians.

“Our women, especially market women, must understand why the government collects taxes, what the government does with it, and how they should pay without exploitation.

“The president has removed fuel subsidy, unified the exchange rate, and increased allocations to states. These reforms will ensure more projects are delivered to benefit citizens,” she said.