Editorial Desk :
The vital question any responsible government must address is — if the people have to buy service by paying bribe then why they should pay taxes? Apart from this, the question arises why the people should be asked to pay twice — once by way of tax and then by way of corruption for the public services at every level.
Businesses complain of harassment by Revenue Officials for tax collection, which continues on a regular basis, saying they want to pay tax with dignity and in a proper and transparent manner. Some business leaders allege that field-level officials sometimes misbehave with tax-payers. They also allege that the officials continue to chase those who already pay taxes instead of putting in efforts to bring in the still untaxed population and businesses under the tax net. They also claim that the tax officials always pressurise the businessmen to pay more amounts in VAT than they paid in the previous month without considering the
actual business situation. But they face a tough time taking VAT from government institutions as they are reluctant to give money to the NBR.
Tax officials seize documents without showing any order and ask for bribes to get VAT challans attested. Some inspectors do not want to accept documents submitted by the firms’ employees. Instead, they want the owners to visit the tax office. When the owners meet the Revenue Officials, they are asked to pay extra money. Also the current VAT structure is high for restaurants, which forces many to go for illegal deals with field-level Revenue Officials.
Even top tax-payers are not spared. They are harassed in order for the tax officials to meet their targets, instead of searching for new tax-payers. Even though there are 16 crore people in the country barely 16 lakh have eTINs. There are 3.5 crore businessmen but only 11.3 lakh pay taxes. Top tax-payers suggest that the NBR officials be required to rectify their behaviour, learn courtesy and improve their moral standard.
So citizens have to go through the dual harassment of paying tax and still go through corruption in every public sector service — this is completely unacceptable. Why should an honest person or business be harassed just so a tax official can make some quick money — which does not even enter the Treasury but fills the pockets of the corrupt and dishonest. We are in effect paying twice or more for the service, which we should rightly get with a smile — this is worse than highway robbery because it is done by those who are supposed to provide us with proper service.
And where does the money go to — all the hard earned money of the tax-payers goes towards payments towards interest, infrastructure, and service payments. We know that infrastructure and development projects are regularly mired in corruption, which eats away a substantial portion of the amounts earned. This slows down GDP growth and efficiency as the amounts could have been re-invested by the businesses themselves with much greater efficiency. Taxation in fact slows down investment by reducing profits, which make business owners reluctant to re-invest; this in turn slows down growth. It is like transferring water from a sound to a leaky bucket — a lot of it will simply drip away.
The well-organised network of corruption at all levels of administration of the government has to be addressed when the income-tax authority so piously reminds the tax-payers as to their obligation to pay income-tax. They must at the same time stop corruption at all levels of the government. All income-tax payers also do not enjoy the power of securing bribes of paying both income-tax and bribe money. Unless honest living is possible, there cannot be honesty in paying tax.
The vital question any responsible government must address is — if the people have to buy service by paying bribe then why they should pay taxes? Apart from this, the question arises why the people should be asked to pay twice — once by way of tax and then by way of corruption for the public services at every level.
Businesses complain of harassment by Revenue Officials for tax collection, which continues on a regular basis, saying they want to pay tax with dignity and in a proper and transparent manner. Some business leaders allege that field-level officials sometimes misbehave with tax-payers. They also allege that the officials continue to chase those who already pay taxes instead of putting in efforts to bring in the still untaxed population and businesses under the tax net. They also claim that the tax officials always pressurise the businessmen to pay more amounts in VAT than they paid in the previous month without considering the
actual business situation. But they face a tough time taking VAT from government institutions as they are reluctant to give money to the NBR.
Tax officials seize documents without showing any order and ask for bribes to get VAT challans attested. Some inspectors do not want to accept documents submitted by the firms’ employees. Instead, they want the owners to visit the tax office. When the owners meet the Revenue Officials, they are asked to pay extra money. Also the current VAT structure is high for restaurants, which forces many to go for illegal deals with field-level Revenue Officials.
Even top tax-payers are not spared. They are harassed in order for the tax officials to meet their targets, instead of searching for new tax-payers. Even though there are 16 crore people in the country barely 16 lakh have eTINs. There are 3.5 crore businessmen but only 11.3 lakh pay taxes. Top tax-payers suggest that the NBR officials be required to rectify their behaviour, learn courtesy and improve their moral standard.
So citizens have to go through the dual harassment of paying tax and still go through corruption in every public sector service — this is completely unacceptable. Why should an honest person or business be harassed just so a tax official can make some quick money — which does not even enter the Treasury but fills the pockets of the corrupt and dishonest. We are in effect paying twice or more for the service, which we should rightly get with a smile — this is worse than highway robbery because it is done by those who are supposed to provide us with proper service.
And where does the money go to — all the hard earned money of the tax-payers goes towards payments towards interest, infrastructure, and service payments. We know that infrastructure and development projects are regularly mired in corruption, which eats away a substantial portion of the amounts earned. This slows down GDP growth and efficiency as the amounts could have been re-invested by the businesses themselves with much greater efficiency. Taxation in fact slows down investment by reducing profits, which make business owners reluctant to re-invest; this in turn slows down growth. It is like transferring water from a sound to a leaky bucket — a lot of it will simply drip away.
The well-organised network of corruption at all levels of administration of the government has to be addressed when the income-tax authority so piously reminds the tax-payers as to their obligation to pay income-tax. They must at the same time stop corruption at all levels of the government. All income-tax payers also do not enjoy the power of securing bribes of paying both income-tax and bribe money. Unless honest living is possible, there cannot be honesty in paying tax.
