OBJECTS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE JOINT REVENUE BOARD: IS THERE ANY GUARANTY OF AUTONOMY?

Abstract

The Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act 2025 structurally consolidates intergovernmental tax administration through Section 5, which provides for legislated functions of harmonisation, data crystallisation, and fiscal interfacing between federal and subnational units. The difficulty, of course, is to strike the right balance between harmonised systems and the institutional independence of various tax collection authorities. This study assesses the applicability and reach of the Board’s integration, data harmonisation, and reform functions under Section 5 with a view to how these interact with the constitutional autonomy of State and Local Revenue Departments, among other live issues. To support the argument advanced in this research, the study relies on doctrinal legal analysis of applicable statutes and judicial interpretations, together with comparisons to fiscal integration models. With reference to systems theory, the Board is conceived as an adaptive subsystem of Nigeria’s fiscal body, and New Institutional Economics explains a trajectory of incentives and transaction costs that affect compliance and restructuring. The paper argues that harmonisation can contribute to efficiency but excessive centralisation will undermine autonomy. It proposes that cooperation should be arranged around a cooperative federalist design and focus on promoting harmonisation through digital interoperability, shared data standards, and negotiated institutional changes.