Dimapur, September 14 (MExN): ACAUT Nagaland (Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation) today voiced out against the uncurbed rampant taxation in Dimapur, the nerve centre of trade and commerce in Nagaland.
As per a press release from Chairman Tia Longchar and Hetoi Chishi Secretary, ACAUT, the rampant taxation was the main impediment for opening enterprises and avenues in the state of Nagaland thereby depriving the youth thousands of jobs at home, who instead are compelled to seek job opportunities in other cities.
Dimapur which boasts of 7 shopping malls giving its citizens an enthralling shopping experience with competitive pricing like any other city in India, ACAUT stated that these shopping malls are fueled by a market economy based on consumerism and they directly employ more than 600 youth, mostly from Dimapur.
These qualified employees take home a minimum salary of not less than Rs 8000 to Rs 30,000 per month. There are positive ripples that trickle down to other business enterprises from logistics to food stalls, it maintained.
The State Government also earns its revenue through the introduction of GST as a consumerist state. With a Pan India tax system in place, the “persisting issue of illegal and unabated taxations is the main affliction that affects the profitability and management of running such enterprises in Nagaland,” it maintained.
The release further pointed out that goods laden carriers and trucks have to shell out nothing less than Rs 15,000 depending on the products and number of the wheels.
For the shopping malls in Dimapur, every week 13 to 15 trucks enter through the gates paying such multiple “extra” taxes.
“These unabated taxes by parallel governments and unregulated taxes by the state government is a deterrent to entrepreneurs as well to any prospective investors in our state,” ACAUT pointed out.
Unlike other organized shops, which can inflate prices and sell beyond MRP, these malls are supposed to maintain a standard online MRP wherein the cost of items sold in these malls cannot be manipulated to adjust for the unabated and multiple taxes, ACAUT mentioned.
Since government jobs are saturated, the only employment opportunities for the “thousands of our youth that enters the job market every year is in the private sector.”
The release held that on any given day, especially at the New Field check gate, trucks are targeted for collection by the various Naga political groups as their right to tax.
While observing that with issues being raised by various CSOs, there have been periodic raids by the police. But it has not rooted out “this unabated taxation menace,” ACAUT remarked.
The modus operandi for these tax mongers have been upgraded through intimations and notices by mobile phones, ACAUT stated, adding the never ending vicious cycle of taxation was now “eating into the very vital essence of entrepreneurship.”
Even to etch out an honest livelihood for any ordinary citizen has become difficult due to the ever rising prices escalated by the well oiled taxing syndicates.
Stating that the dream of making the society a self reliant and prosperous state was becoming more of a distant reality, the biggest threat to the “very existence of our Naga society is an infliction of our own making - unabated, multiple and illegal taxations,” ACAUT held.
As such, ACAUT held that the state government “should issue Arms Licence to citizens to protect themselves from petty criminals and gangs misusing the name of our national movement to pursue their vested interests.”
Meanwhile, ACAUT further reiterated the October 31, 2013 Public Rally Resolution of, "one government, one tax" which was also reiterated by the Public Action Committee (PAC) of Naga Council Dimapur on October 31, 2018.
ACAUT Nagaland called on the people of the State to rise to the occasion when the clarion call is given at the right time.
