Nagaland people want rebel groups to usher in one tax
At the stroke of midnight, India might be switching to one-nation-one-tax, but in Nagaland, many would be forced to continue paying an array of levies to underground governments run by rebel groups.
But now, locals in the state want militant groups to standardise rates and usher in a common “tax” collection system, on the lines of GST. The GST-like one rebel government mechanism, locals in Nagaland say, would kill two birds with one stone — ease the fiscal burden on the common man who ends up paying half his earnings as taxes to non-legitimate governments and unify all rebel outfits for the “Naga political cause” of uniting all Naga-inhabited areas under one administrative umbrella.
“We are insisting on one tax, and an end to multiple taxes will unify Naga political groups,” said Khekaghu Meru, co-chairman of Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT), a citizens’ group formed in 2014 to protest extortion and multiple levies. The group’s advocacy previously forced rebel groups to reduce levies for shopkeepers and small traders.
Most communities in Nagaland, including Nagas, are listed as Scheduled Tribes and are exempt from income tax under section 10(26) of Income Tax Act. But almost everyone — police officers too — pays income tax to underground governments, the rate varying from 12%-24% of a month’s salary or income.
Nagaland has at least nine extremist groups that impose an array of ‘donations’ — income, shop, commercial and house tax — to generate ‘revenue’ for their governments. The rebels say it is their right to collect such taxes but do not specify if they spend the ’ money for civic projects.
Four of these groups are factions of National Socialist Council of Nagaland. The Isak-Muivah faction is the most systematic of the tax collectors followed by Khaplang, Unification (also called Niangpao Konyak-Kitovi Zhimomi group), and Reformation factions. The older Naga National Council has five tax collection groups.
Fed up of being overtaxed, ‘taxpayers’ in Nagaland formed ACAUT in January 2014. ACAUT has been speaking up against multiple taxation and extortion by rebels, who have responded by ‘banning’ ACAUT and threatening members. Meru made it clear that ACAUT isn’t against paying taxes to parallel governments but demand a common structure.
“Multiple taxes have not stopped, but the mass movement has brought in some changes. The underground governments no longer do things in a blatant manner, they are more cautious. And we have a platform to take up issues with the government, in the state and at the Centre, though they have not been of much help,” Imlimar of Business Association of Nagaland, an ACAUT constituent, told HT.