The Impact of the Petroleum Industry Act on Corporate Social Responsibility and Taxation in Nigeria’s Upstream Oil and Gas Sector: A Path towards Sustainable Development

Abstract

Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas sector is extensively contributing to the economic growth of the country, but the sector is plagued with challenges around corporate social responsibility (CSR) and taxation practices. The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) was introduced to tackle these challenges towards promoting sustainable development in Nigeria. The aim of this study is to explore the PIA’s provisions on CSR and taxation, identify the Act’s implementation challenges and improvement opportunities, propose an integrated framework for monitoring and evaluating the PIA’s impact on CSR and taxation over time, and recommend measures for enhancing the PIA’s impact on CSR and taxation support for sustainable development in Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas sector. This study adopts the qualitative desk review method to analyse the existent literature, reports, and documents regarding the PIA’s provisions on CSR and taxation. The findings reveal that the PIA’s provisions greatly emphasize CSR initiatives and taxation transparency in improving responsible ethical business behaviour. An integrated framework for monitoring and evaluating the PIA’s impact over time is developed. This study concludes that the PIA’s provisions can balance CSR and taxation practices for sustainable development. The study’s recommendations include using the integrated framework as a structured strategy for monitoring and evaluating the PIA’s impact. This study contributes to the discussion on the imperatives of ethical business practices and regulatory frameworks for sustainable development drive in the oil and gas sector.