TAXES. Do citizens like paying tax? The simple truth is no. If the same question is asked to MSMEs.
The answer is still no. In their minds, every small person on the street is saying, ol kaikai man, kaikai moni blo pipol igo na bel solap pinis.” All over the world, in many different countries, the story is the same.
People disapprove of paying taxes to a management that is careless, wasteful and deceiving. In PNG especially, why should citizens pay the toll fee, when all the roads are bad and deteriorating. The fee to get a safety sticker for the cars have increased and still rising.
Hospital fees are rising. School fees are rising. They pay GST, Market fees etc.
.. History clearly recorded that money collected from TAX by the State was to build and maintain public amenities such as toilets, parks, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, jetties, airports, airstrips, markets, bus stops, footpath, public swimming pools and other service facilities considered for public conveniences/usage.
In other words, the State was collecting from the people because it was building public amenities for use by all. The State was just the manager of people’s facilities. The main reason for government collecting taxes from citizens was created in 1861 during the American Civil war.
Its primary purpose was because money was needed to finance the war effort in America. The government reasoned that in-order for the people to live freely and securely, they must contribute to the effort of sustaining a home-guard that will provide overall security to protect the nation. After the Civil War, when America began rising to power, it realised that countries where Monarchy presided could justify the ongoing tax collection because one of the primary reason was to keep the Monarch governing system alive and active.
America was loosing the purpose of collecting tax from the citizens to keep its peace effort, so it turned to corporate tax. Like Ceaser Augustus in ancient Rome, America began collecting taxes from time to time from merchants and sometimes from the large wealthy corporations that were making a lot of money from businesses. So the custom and tradition of collecting taxes became entrenched with governments.
Their public reasoning was to keep governance and control, the state must collect from those who lived in the Kingdom. The collected money will then be used by the state for the collective good of keeping peace, harmony and secured livelihood. In countries where finance is managed better and focused and those monies were spent for the purpose it was collected for, the citizens enjoyed immensely the availability of better kept public amenities.
Disciplined citizens of those countries appreciated the local shires and district councils and many obliged to paying the taxes. The money was well used to keep the township clean and healthy for the citizens benefit. In Papua New Guinea, are those public facilities available.
NO. Each facility that is still functioning is charging extra fees to keep the public amenities active. People do not see tangible outcomes from the heavy taxes they are paying and getting more frustrated with rising cost of living.
In Papua New Guinea, it is clear, the taxes collected are spent on luxury trips, lavish parties, cars and given as free handouts, especially by the Legislators through their legally established DSIP and PSIP programs. Papua New Guineans are not stupid or blind anymore. They see the legislators openly building empires and estates.
One of the reasons why many are contesting elections, for the free accessible tax monies which can be used without accountability. That is the main reason why the working class do not like paying taxes. Because it is eaten up by selfish legislators.
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