{ முகநூல் கருத்துக்கள்}{ட்விட்டர் கருத்துக்கள்}

We - the people - pay hundreds and thousands of rupees as taxes every year to central and state governments. In addition, we also pay taxes to local bodies like Municipalities every year. There is this wrong belief that only rich pay taxes. This is not true. Everyone - whether rich or poor - pays Sales Tax/VAT (when we buy any product from the shop for example), Service Tax (when we use mobile phones for example), Water Tax, Property Tax etc. The difference between many rich and many poor is the Income Tax. Only those above certain income level pay Income Tax.

The problem with most of us is that we pay our taxes and then keep our mouth shut. We do not care or ask how that money is spent. This is very wrong. If the money we pay is used carefully by the officials (without being wasted by way of corruption, useless projects etc), we will be getting good services. When it is wasted on corrupt practices (or useless projects), the government would be increasing the taxes - to finance new services (or cover other expenses), putting more burden on us. Hence, it is very important we are careful. We should be watching the government - scrutinising how it spends our money.

Kayalpatnam recently witnessed serious dispute between the people who have bought the license for animal slaughter from the municipality and the local meat shop owners. The dispute is settled for the time being. Till before the dispute became public though, not many were aware that there is this thing called license for animal slaughter. We do not still know how this license was given in the past, was it given to the highest bidder, how much revenue did municipality get. We also do not know what are other licenses that Municipality can charge, how it is charging etc.

April also marks the beginning of a new financial year for the Municipality. A new budget would have been passed in the municipality - by February itself. Does any one of us know - what is the size of the budget, how our money (paid as taxes) is going to be spent in the next 12 months by the Municipality? The safe answer is no. We do not know and we do not care. And the municipality and its officials (including councillors) also do not care to inform the public. The proper thing would have been to involve - in planning the budget - the public and various social organisations in Kayalpatnam. After all it is their money. It did not happen.

Unless We - the people - change our attitude and begin to take more interest, the current situation will not change. Our municipality would remain mysterious to most of us. A few corrupt people would be benefitting - while most others who pay tax from their hard-earned money - would be working even harder to pay more taxes.