Public Revenue and Economic Policy in African Countries: An Overview of Issues and Policy Options

摘要

The paper provides an overview of several recent studies on the problems of raising public revenues and financing socially and economically desirable public programs in sub-Saharan Africa. It covers three topics: tax reform, the pricing policies of the major infrastructure services (electricity, water, telecommunications and roads), and the finance of education and health. Although the public revenues raised currently average around 20 percent of GDP in the oil importing countries, they still fall short of what is needed to finance the development and maintenance of infrastructure services, to provide for the health and education of the populace, and to provide supporting services to agriculture, forestry and industry-even assuming that the much-discussed losses on the expenditure sides of the public accounts, arising from poor expenditure choices, are eliminated. (Copyright (c) 1987.)