Poorly maintained roads and sewerage drains, unsafe water supply, lack of street lights and footpaths, unfriendly cops, and to top it all, corrupt leaders and politicians.
These are the realities most of the Indian population lives with every day. This condition is also applicable to those who pay taxes towards roads, water, sewerage, property, none of which are provided adequately or resourcefully.
Even the income tax that is paid every year is supposed to be redistributed to the section that is under penury. Do we have any transparency on how much and how effectively the money reaches them?
Given this pathetic situation, what happens when all tax-payers collectively boycott taxes?
Jail sentence?
One (extreme) possibility is that government may imprison every one of those who refuses to pay taxes. But in this unique situation where all tax payers collectively refuse to pay taxes, does the country have enough prisons to accommodate all?
Even assuming there is, the prison maintenance is funded by tax payer’s money. So how long can the government keep the prisons functional? Even more, who will pay for the police to maintain law and order in the prisons?
In general, majority of tax payers are expected to be more skilled than the rest of the population. So if the more skilled population is put in jail and thus does not engage in economic activity, wouldn’t the productivity of the country eventually come to a halt?
To explain, the only tax-payers that “might” continue to work are the politicians; needless to explain why they continue to work. The other section that continues to work is the non-tax payer group. These two sections might be able to buy stuff only from non-tax paying sellers. Why not the tax paying sellers?
Tax-paying corporates cannot continue operating their businesses as their employees, who are typically tax-payers, are now in jail! Thus, eventually, all economic activities would cease to exist with the existing set of economic agents.
In effect, it is not feasible or sustainable to imprison all tax-payers, all of whom refuse to pay taxes. And thus, the only alternative is yielding to tax-payers requests, some of which are illustrated below.
Accountability for every rupee
All that tax payers ask for is safe roads, where rules are enforced; safe drinking water; regularly collected garbage; usable public rest rooms, some greenery around to live with. To top it, people pay money for all these services as taxes. So isn’t it the duty of the government to provide such services?
When the government can punish people for not paying taxes, why not take the accountability as well? In other words, why not make the public punish the respective local government authorities if they fail to provide the public service for which taxes are collected?
It is time that the governments, especially at the local level, start being more transparent about their duties and commit to their responsibilities.
Every rupee paid towards taxes is hard-earned money that is parted with. Thus, the government is liable to provide account to each and every rupee paid towards taxes.
With the tax-return filing month around the corner, if the government wishes to raise some money, then it has to be more sensitive to tax-payers’ sentiment.
After all, the government might not want to get into a tricky situation when everyone refuses to file their returns and everyone is willing to get imprisoned.