Make Our Tax Money Work for Us

Dilrook Kannangara

The budget is being discussed in Parliament. Beside from the usual horse trading by the government and the opposition’s attempts to topple the government, the budget outlines the sources and uses of funds and economic incentives for certain behaviours.

It is a welcome sign that apparently people’s suggestions have been considered by the authorities in drafting the proposals. However, frankly, this budget has nothing for the people in the short term. Instead it focuses on a hard toil next year for better prospects later, which makes perfect economic sense.

What defies economic reality is the renewal of the licence to life granted to the terrorists. There’s enough proof that war and peace (peace-without-law & order) has done all the damage to our economy. As long as these terrorists live and breathe in our country, there cannot be any real economic progress. Media may claim peace when thousands are killed under the guise of peace but their nonsense fails to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) as seen in 2002-2004 period. Also apart from sex seekers and other destructive visitors, we would never have access to the high value tourists (higher net spending per PAX) who visited Sri Lanka until the late 1970s. We can never develop indigenous industries either, as they will have the same fate as the Mahaweli project (1970-1988), resettlement projects (1948-1983) and many more including the proposed Hambantota port project.

What’s worse is that government borrowings were granted free of repayment to the terrorists to further destroy us. Thankfully it has stopped since of late. On the otherhand, the amount of tax collected by direct, indirect and capital taxes have risen drastically with little or no improvement in the quality of life. More and more funds are needed for the following; (A) feed those who live in uncleared areas, mainly terrorists provide necessities to the ever increasing refugees, IDPs and people in besieged areas without exterminating terrorists provide subsistence to those families affected by the war and natural diasters without exterminating terrorists and eliminating root causes offset effects of loss of livelihood due to the LTTE (agriculture, fisheries, mining, tourism, self-employment and many more) without exterminating those terrorists provide free education in unequal proportions (their presence in universities is almost double their ethnic percentage) to Tamils (other than their upcountry relatives) with relatively very little return for the country maintain and rehabilitate LTTE prisoners and drug addicts/drug lords without drastically eliminating the drug menace and those involved maintain security and luxurious lifestyle of traitors of the nation repayment (in foreign currency) of those debts that Sri Lanka incurred but were granted to TRO, etc. without repayment other political blunders.

Although the above are ‘honourable’ under a communist economic system, they are no more than parasites in any other point of view. We will have to live with some of the above unfortunately, but certainly if the trend continues the tragedies and burdens are going to increase.

The government should note the extreme difficulty most of us undergo to pay for necessities as we also pay a tax element with it, not to mention PAYE and other taxes. Just because the poor of Hambantota (and most parts of the country) do not make a fuss for the lack of milk powder, etc. etc.; do not assume otherwise. The tax paying poor bears a larger burden than any of (A) and (B) above.

At least now the people should rally against this nonsense and force the government to deliver what the tax payers want, and definitely not what the (B) international community, terrorists, NGOs, traitors, bankrupt politicians, dollar vultures, drug big-wigs and other psychopaths need.

Please spare our tax money from fattening the above. The government should provide a detailed breakdown of the amounts wasted on (A) and (B) above for every one rupee collected. Then we can calculate how much my tax payments (at least direct taxes) have been used for my detriment and for the detriment of my country.

People of Homagama do not and will not tolerate (A) and (B) above. Make our tax money work for us and our nation. When we have more than enough, let the tax payers consider return to extreme generosity. Please do not strain our mercy by heaping it upon the undeserved. Get our tax work for us-the tax payers- and our nation ONLY.