Monday, 25 February 2013

"Carrots"(Incentives) for honest taxpayers

In India, approach to tax administration is a mixture of preaching good citizenship and coercive measures liker penalties, raids etc. In other words, there is more reliance on "stick" rather than "carrots". One hopes the Honourable Finance Minister dangles out carrots to the honest taxpayer. Of Course, I am not saying dont punish the tax evaders.  Do that in full force. But also incentivise the honest. Not incentivising the honest is a bigger tragedy than not punishing the dishonest.

My scheme is very simple. Let every income-tax payer be granted an unsecured interest-free or  loan at a concessional -interest rate of say 3% p.a. against Post-dated cheques. Loan should be hassle-free and sanctioned and disbursed within 2 hours. The amount of loan be a multiple of  on average income-tax paid during last five years by the taxpayer. For example, loan amount =10 times the average tax paid The taxpayer be granted new loan after say 7 years of availing the earlier one provided he has repaid it.

It is not that hitherto no attempts have been made to incentivise honest tax payers. In UP, there is provision for insurance scheme for dealers registered for trade tax 
"Q.9      What facilities has the State provided to the registered dealers ?
A.9        Some important facilities which are provided to registered dealer  are-
(1)   The manufacturer  can  purchase the  raw materials at reduced  rate of Tax.
(2)   There is a provision of Insurance scheme for the dealers registered under U.P. Trade Tax Act ".           
 http://comtax.up.nic.in/HelpDesk/faq.htm
 My idea is even better than the UP one in that my scheme links benefits to tax paid.

No less a person than Albert Einstein had said that if you do the same thing again and again, you cant expect different results. Let us change the approach then.
Update:  Pakistan PM  Rewards 100 Top Taxpayers
 http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/Pakistan-PM-Nawaz-Sharif-Rewards-100-Top-Taxpayers/849942
If Pakistan can do it, why cant India do it?

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