A Heavy Burden

The issue of fratricidal killings and the heavy tax collection in Nagaland recently raised by the Village Chiefs (GBs) Federation should be taken up in all sincerity by the State government. It is also a welcome move on the part of the GBs to come out openly to air their point of view as the platform of the GBs can be influential in playing a meaningful role for addressing issues that confronts the State. That the Gaonboras represent the elders of the Naga villages gives them all the more responsibility to address the same. It is therefore high time that the GBs themselves take a more active role in running the affairs of the State and Society. The village council consisting of the GBs in partnership with the State government should be seen as an important component of the modern governance system in Nagaland.

Coming to the question of illegal tax collection on transport vehicles by various registered and unregistered unions it is a fact that this practice remains rampant in the State even after several orders had been passed to curb this menace. In the vicinity of the State capital truck drivers have to dole out a certain amount as ‘protection money’. The stretch of NH-39, between Kohima and Dimapur has over the years become a major hub for collecting illegal toll. Even trucks carrying onions and potatoes from Assam into Nagaland pay a certain amount of ‘patriotic tax’. 

The burgeoning tax-collection activity in Nagaland is indeed mind-boggling. The list of tax extracted on goods-laden trucks from Dimapur to Kohima as brought out by the GB Federation is indeed surprising as no one would have imagined that there would be as much as nineteen category of taxes spread across five check gates. As calculated by the GB Federation, the grand total of tax levied for one truck daily from Dimapur to Kohima works out to Rs 805. This is highly unacceptable and does not even merit the rationale of a welfare State which, while collecting taxes re-invest them for either creating or maintaining public amenities for public welfare such as maintaining roads.  

The State Government’s apathy towards checking (illegal levy) or for that matter streamlining collections (authorized), tantamount to conniving with ‘the nefarious elements’ and unless the concerned authorities act on it, it will become a free for all splurge amounting to the very abdication of authority.

Clearly as far as enforcing any order is concerned the police would have to play a much more active role. This lackadaisical attitude of the men in uniform is hardly surprising. There have been complaints from various quarters of collusion between those who keep the law and those who break it. The consequence of such rampant extortion has a negative bearing on public welfare.

While the practice of generating State revenue is not being disputed but its misuse should be detected so that the public do not suffer. It is suggested that revenue collection which is within the legal parameter must be done through a one-stop-tax collection. For this the district administration must be more sincere in streamlining collection points. It is about time the authorities tried to make life easier for those who are unnecessarily harassed. 
 



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