FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG – A majority working in the shadows Figure 6.4 Perceived fairness of public service delivery in exchange for taxes and fees Senegal Zambia Kenya Benin Côte d’Ivoire Ethiopia Strongly Agree 25% Agree 50% Undecided[DNR] 75% Disagree 100% Strongly Disagree Note: Exact wording of the question: Particularly in your case and that of your family, do you consider that you get a fair amount of public services considering the money that you contribute to the state in terms of taxes, fees and other payments? For the response options see the legend. The option undecided was not read out but coded. Table 6.4 Opinions on who should pay taxes and fees(unweighted average for all countries in the sample) Only wealthy citi­zens should have to pay taxes or fees to the government Strongly agree/ agree Strongly disagree/ disagree Total Everyone who earns an income, regardless of how much it is, should have to pay some taxes or fees to the government Strongly agree/ agree Strongly disagree/ disagree 21% 15% 51% 72%  8% 23% Total 36% 59% 95% Note: The questions were asked as part of a battery. Before mentioning the statement in bold in this table the respondent was asked: Do you agree with the following statement? The response options included» Strongly Agree«;» Agree«(both options, including»Agree«, are collapsed in the table);» Disagree«;» Strongly disagree«(both options including»Disagree« are collapsed in the table);» Undecided«; » Don’t know«. The options»Undecided« and»Don’t know« were not read out but coded. the fiscal pressure on the wealthy, and agreement with the idea that everyone who has an income should contribute to the tax effort. This might be interpreted as indicating support for moderate progressive taxation and a broad tax base. The difference in the proportion of respondents in those cells of the table is surprisingly large. A remarkable 51 per cent of respondents are located in the cell, suggesting support for a broad tax basis. By contrast only 15 per cent of the respondents indicate support for a highly progressive tax system centred on the wealthy. The data might be interpreted as suggesting that the in­formally employed broadly support taxing people with the economic capacity to contribute and having a regular in­come. But data are not particularly supportive for calls for tax measures very much geared towards the wealthy. It is true that 36 per cent agree with the statement that only the wealthy should pay but the majority of respondents also indicate that everyone with an income should pay. It appears that the informally employed are more open to support a larger tax base than is commonly assumed or claimed. In any case, this does not call into question potential support for progressive taxation and redistribution, as other data suggest strong support. Overall, it seems that redistribution is very much understood as focussing on addressing the needs of the poor and that there is openness to making large segments of society contribute. This reticence to put more pressure of the wealthy is also suggested by the fact that, with the exception of Kenya, the number of respondents who consider that the wealthy pay enough is pretty high (Figure 6.5). In three countries a majority support this idea (Côte d’Ivoire: 59 per cent; Ethiopia: 60 per cent; and Benin: 51 per cent), while in Zambia the figure is 47 per cent(with a high 16 per cent of respondents undecided). The clear outlier is Kenya where 75 per cent consider that the wealthy should pay more. 7 Also, those who consider the system to be unfair 7 In overall terms 49 per cent support the idea that the wealthy pay enough while 44 per cent believe that they should pay more. 54