CITY Corporations have to ensure services they are supposed to provide before blaming the tax evaders. City dwellers are forced to pay taxes despite the hard economic reality and hardship of the people. Our people are too docile otherwise they would have stood up in protest against paying taxes without services. So it is no surprise that Tk.285 crores in taxes have fallen due and remain uncollected from taxpayers in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) areas. As the corruption and incompetence are to be found everywhere among public functionaries it is for the Corporations officials to prove their worth for the taxes the people should pay. The businessmen are evading holding taxes by hiding building’s area and by renting residential space for commercial purposes. But the salient causes of heaping arrears holding taxes are poor management and dishonesty of some DSCC officials. The top tax dodgers include popular hospitals, public universities, schools and colleges, shopping malls, and also some government blessed businessmen. Even, tax collectors become helpless as most of the tax evaders are politically and economically influential and they do not heed DSCC notice. Sometimes, the evaders provide fake cheque that gets bounced after submitting at banks. The DSCC mayor said they would become tough to realize the dues but officers of many public organizations said the percentage of holding tax is unrealistic and they do not earn enough to pay such tax. So, the city corporations must formulate realistic policy and also time frame to realize the dues. They should forget talking about taxes, without offering honest and clean services to the residents of Dhaka.
