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OVER-TAXATION NOT THE ANSWER

07/03/2019 01:08:00 By vusi Kunene

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IT is good news to hear that government has increased the budget for health and education. This is very necessary for the country if we are looking to have it developed.

I am worried though that from the little knowledge I have on the budget this may not be an increase when taking into account things like inflation. With those one may find that the budget had actually shrinked. So that is why I am not willing to congratulate government so early before doing the necessary calculations.
But even then it is good that there was something done. I am still worried though with the lion’s share going to the security forces when we do not have an urgent need on those. We have failed to meet the threshold when it comes to agriculture but we gave a large share to security.

I have mentioned in the past that as a country we seem not to learn from our previous mistakes and those of others. It had been said time and time again that over-taxing the people is not an answer to economic problems. Scholars had told us the same thing and others have even assimilated this to a man lifting himself by his boots straps.

They are saying it is impossible to do so. But our government is not willing to listen or to learn. We have done this in the past and look at where we are today so it does not work. People will recall that when the Revenue Authority came into operation, it was not to collect taxes and we got money and congratulated them even though they were hard on the citizens. Some companies even closed because they could not afford. But look where we are today.

That was not the end as we tried the tax route to help our failing economy again. Some of us recall the introduction of the VAT and the difficulties it brought to the people. The same reasons advanced today for the over-taxing were advanced then. It did not help and here we are today still in the same problem. The only change being that the people are now worse off as they are double taxed.

Reduction

There were protests that if VAT was collected, then there should be a reduction of the PAYE tax but that fell on deaf ears. I am then asking myself if as a country there has been a study undertaken to find out why we are having these problems yet the people are heavily taxed. Unless we have a government willing to give information we will never know that.

In my opinion though, there is something common even though we have tried to introduce the different taxes. What is common is that we have a government that is collecting taxes from the people but is not transparent. We have a government that is not accountable to the people. We have a government that allows corruption to strive.

We have a government that does not set targets for its employees, especially its senior employees. We have a government that does not discipline even when they are wrong. We have a government that has the wrong priorities and some of the priorities are detrimental to the economy. We have a government that is untrustworthy. ‘‘Our prime minister had promised non-increase in certain commodities to cushion the people but the same government wants to tax the people heavily. So to have the people taxed heavily will not solve the problem because the same pit where the money goes is still open even today. So unless we do a serious introspection as a country we will forever tax the citizens.

Non-transparent

Besides being non-transparent, this government is further discriminatory. It does not treat it servants equally. Some are treated better than others. Some of the government employees are cushioned before such things as the increase in taxes is done. So when the taxes are hiked, they do not feel the pinch. That is why there are some promotions which is a disguise to the tax cushion.

It is therefore not surprising that the security got a better increase in the budget. This is to make sure that those in the forces are cushioned because government cannot afford not to have them on its side.

Government knows that it will need them to force the people of this country to submission even when they want to complain about the unnecessary taxes.
I have noticed that Parliament is said to be against the taxes but I do not want to believe it.

This is from experience. Our jelly spine Parliament has failed to oppose such budgets in the past and what will change with the current Parliament? If the previous Parliaments were forced to approve the budget they had opposed a few days ago, what will stop the current Parliament from doing the same thing?

The people of this country should just prepare themselves for the reality. They are going to be heavily taxed and that tax will not help in anyway as history has proved.