Depositing Taxes through Tagged/Protest Accounts - An Effective and Democratic Way to record public opinion and expressing protest/dissent peacefully

This is one of a series of five strategies up for discussion. These hold the promise for problems as diverse as,  violence in urban centred growth, people stripped of lands for development, historic injustice on  farmers and environment  in treating land just as a commodity and finally even global climate concerns. All point to decentralized systems of production and small community life styles  or ‘gram swaraj as an optimal solution when holistic economics, which integrates the environmental and human issues,  is considered.It is interesting that all these appear to be consistent with principles of non violence and  democracy including market economics when viewed holistically. 
  

Depositing Taxes through Tagged/Protest Accounts :

A Non-violent,  Effective  and Democratic Way
to voice desires / demands / dissent

A powerful new tool in practicing to non violence in holistic development

Sudhakar Puttagunta

Associate Professor, CRDT, IITD

On leave from Haritha Association for Learning from Environment

Abstract:

Bandhs and rasta rokos have become a way of expressing desires & demands and protests  or dissent. Unfortunately, the media attention to the accompanying violence seems to create a wrong impression that the more violent it gets, the more public support it has. This feeling is increasingly being exploited by the  unscrupulous and the anti socials alike to serve their vested interests, a sad commentary to what was effectively used by Gandhiji as essentially a non violent way to express protest and dissent by the public against the mighty state apparatus. In the extreme case, Gandhiji adopted non cooperation including the refusal to pay taxes.

A new way of measuring  public opinion including protest/dissent against specific policies of state by  paying taxes and yet record protest in a very effective way in line with principles of non violence and democracy is suggested. It proposes that the followers of a support group for a policy or a  practice, current or proposed,   be allowed to deposit their taxes through a ‘tagged/protest  account’ and gradually impose restrictions on the state apparatus in accessing the deposited taxes in the tagged/protest account. Unlike in opinion polls, in this new method  an individual or an organization is forced to make a conscious choice that keeps effecting one's own purse, every time a choice is to be made, and hence this  new way may be more accurate in addition too promoting harmony in dealing with others that may differ.   

Even though, the narrow ‘direct tax’ base of the country may seem to severely restrict its efficacy in representing the majority opinion, a variety of ways in depositing the indirect taxes that have an almost all pervasive base  are suggested. These measures when adopted by the society  have the potential to  clearly reflect the majority opinion in a manner that helps the state apparatus to tune the policies in solving contentious issues without the undesirable consequences of the current methods of mass agitations.

1. Introduction:

Avenues to express desire/demand for or protest against any particular policy/practice  in any society and democracy in particular,  is a vital necessity for a healthy civilization. In modern times, Gandhi led the non-violent way of expressing dissent through Satyagraha. Less than a century later, it has evolved into frequent bandhs and rasta rokos    which turn violent many a times. What is particularly unhealthy and potentially dangerous  to basic tenets of democracy is the following:

The success of a protest or demand as a measure of the support of the majority has unfortunately come to be assessed by  the extent of damage caused during the  ‘bandh or rasto roko’ to the  human lives and property such as vehicles - public or private, shops and other buildings.

It is now  a public secret that more shops down their shutters for fear of violence rather than to express solidarity with the protest group/s and the anti-social elements rule the day totally distorting the true public opinion.

While it is understandable that violence has its roots in the  sense of failed or delayed justice, perpetration of mass violence or even a support to such thoughts can not be an option to  address the problems and can never be good for the society.

It should still be the endeavor of a civilized society to find ways and means of finding effective ways of expressing disire/demand/dissent that

the governments can not ignore on one hand and

helps in accurately assessing the majority support when there are often conflicting opinions/interests of different groups.   

2.  The New way to protest/record public opinion:

We suggest a new and effective way of expressing  protest or record public opinion even while not  causing damage to society through loss of valuable working days or loss of property and avoids human misery-  it can be briefly stated as below:

    2.1. A given group which wishes to voice its protest or record its opinion (on specific issues) can ask its supporters to open a sub account (called a tagged account) in filing the tax returns- whether it be direct or indirect, local or central  taxes such as income tax, professional and service taxes including municipal taxes on properties, sales tax, VAT etc or excise taxes.

    2.2. The cumulative  deposits in a given  tagged/protest account as a fraction of the total tax deposits in the said area /region of conflict can be made available on line:
       it  would be a fair measure of the support of an opinion, including protest  on a particular issue.

    2.3. Whetehr it is a protest or demand, depending on the complexity/nature of protest/demand,  the time to redress/consider and implement the same,  if accepted by the authorities can be decided in a certain pre-determined slabs, each of a certain number of months/quarters, during which time, public and government keep getting updated with the extent of support. How ever, the government - local or other wise - can go on with business as usual in accessing the taxes deposited in the tagged account/s of a given group.

2.4. If the fraction of the tax deposits in any tagged account is substantial at the end of the first mandatory time slab, the relevant authority, local or other wise, may have to mandatorily come out with an action plan to address the concerns of the  group in a another mandatory period of time.

The government - local or other wise would continue to access the taxes deposited in the tagged accounts unhindered.

2.5. If the  group is not satisfied with the results of the action plan in the said time duration, it would continue or intensify its campaign signalling the third time slab of action.

2.6. During the third and subsequent time slabs, the said group may resort to imposing different levels of restrictions in allowing the government to access the tax deposits in its protest account :

the highest restriction would be to let govt apply for a loan against the deposited tax of the tagged account - the loan terms like interest rate - repayment terms may be negotiable.

2.7. Finally when every thing fails and the said group enjoys huge popularity as indicated by corresponding large fractional size  of the tax deposit under its tagged account, it may even resort to completely deny  the unrelenting state apparatus any sort of access to the tax deposit in its tagged account, untill the next government is in. In such a case it may  amount to civil disobedience by refusing the access to the  government for the taxes already paind in the tagged accounts. How ever individuals- persons or corporations would have still deposited their tax dues in a safe account.

And they may face the legal actions for refusing to allow the access to the taxes in their tagged  account. This would amount to the tenet that a satyagrahi, while opposing a bad law or bad enforcement of a law may break some other laws  and willingly and non violently accepts the consequences such as a likely prosecution.
The next round of elections would reflect these  issues and the masses may be empowered in wisely asking the right questions and deciding whom to elect for the next government that would respect and try honestly to implement  the public opinion. In which case, the new government would have access to the tax deposits in the protest account.  Hence it may not amount to treason, even in the extreme measure all in a non-violent manner.

3. Reflecting the majority opinion:

A relevant question would be

    “To what extent can the taxes deposited in  protest account  be taken to represent the public opinion in view of the narrow tax base  in our country?”

The tax base is definitely very narrow in case of direct or professional taxes.

But when indirect taxes such as sales tax, excise duty, road taxes are concerned, the base becomes wider. More over, some measures can be suggested where in a shop that is patronized by a small locality can be used to decipher/reflect the opinion of the local patrons:

For example, the shop can opt for the following :

    a) The shop keeper can publicly display his choice of depositing the taxes due  from his  shop.

b) The taxes due from the shop can be classified into

i) professional/service taxes that the owner of the shop has to pay and

ii) sales tax collected from the clients

One of the  following can be done by the shop keeper  in relation to the sales tax collected form the clients:

1. The clients are asked to indicate their choice of joining the protest group and the receipt  clearly indicates it. or

2. The clients are not given a choice, but the owner displays his/her choice for all the sales tax collected.

An individual client would have a choice to avoid the shop if  its attitude is not to one’s         liking.

And the shop owner takes a principled risk and bets on the best deal that his/her         shop can offer for the services- goods rendered.

Different necessities would pull every individual in different directions and ultimately one’s own  wisdom would have a chance to  triumph.

And a shop owner would have a choice of sourcing his stocks from among different wholesalers / manufacturers who pay duties such as excise, choose his transport company who pays transport taxes etc.

It would soon be a web and most population indirectly  gets covered.

And in any case, we have voting in elections periodically and the above is only to support and strengthen and not replace it.

The power of IT today can make the on-line data streaming possible in every shop.

4. Conclusion:

It would be a great day for a mature democracy and practice of non violence, when an individual can hold his head high and announce  an opinion that differs from the majority - local or global without fearing for one’s  life or property.  

As an example, in the context of ‘separate Telangana vs United Andhra’ movements in Andhra Pradesh,

a citizen living in Telagana region holds up his flag for support of United AP and

a citizen resident  in non Telangana area can hold his flag high for a separate Telangana with out fear of brutal violence. That would be more important as a prerequisite for a functioning democracy.

Unfortunately what is prevailing is more of a ‘demonocracy’ in many conflicts among different groups where  ultimately it is the brutal capacity  of a minuscule minority to terrorise the peace loving majority that is meek and  weak  which is increasingly coming to be perceived as a majority opinion. Nothing can be more dangerous from the growing tribe of unscrupulous and mafia gangs  and ruinous to the society.