The issue of ‘Tax’ in Nagaland remains controversial as ever and never as contentious in recent times. By definition tax is a compulsory contribution that citizens of a state are levied on income, business transactions, goods and services. Other than tax there are also duties that are charged by the states on movement of goods from one state to the other whether it is exit or entry. Then there are additional cess that usually are charged on top of the tax or on the value of the transaction for certain specific purposes that the state needs but do not have the required amount to fund it. In India, some examples are the Education cess, Swach Baharat cess, and Krishi Kalyan that are deducted on certain transactions like phone bills, service charges etc.
The Scheduled Tribe residents of Nagaland are exempted from paying Income tax as per the Income Tax Act and so with a predominant Scheduled Tribe population none of the Naga Tribals in Nagaland pay Income tax. All other forms of taxes are enforced in the state and the citizens are liable to pay as per law. However the contentious issue is not about the tax that is paid to the state but the money levied by the numerous groups and parallel governments across the state. Consequently the citizens of the state are ignorant and also not at ease to pay the taxes levied by the government of India.
The compulsory subscriptions in the state actually start from the village of one’s origin; from the students union that graduates to the youth forum/association then to the village citizen’s forum. In some cases there will be some more groups like clan and khel associations. Then comes the associations based on ones’ profession. It later spreads to the region level and to the tribe level in the same hierarchy of student-youth-citizen which nowadays has senior citizens and so no one is left behind. It does not stop in the district where one originates but also spreads to other towns and districts where the people with a common root has good numbers. As mentioned earlier in this column, it has also seeped in into educational institutes. There is no question of not paying and is a taboo even to talk about it since it is deeply rooted in the Naga ethos of solidarity with one’s clan and village. In recent time the power that was earlier wielded by the village was also transferred to the tribal organisations and so the payment of subscriptions is but a form of showing ones allegiance and in return receives the real as well as perceived protection.
On the flip side, ‘taxes’ are also imposed by the various Naga nationalist groups based on similar principles with deep roots that goes back in time to the earlier years on Naga nationalism and to the Naga villages. It is incorrect to say that the earlier undivided nationalist groups did not enforce tax or subscriptions. The meeting minutes of the NNC in its formative years clearly mentions their decision to levy household subscriptions and tax on the business community. It provided for their needs and at the same time commanded authority over the payers. The return was the promise of preservation of our Naga identity and hopefully our own country.
The picture changed drastically with the onset of development and increase in cosmopolitan areas as opposed to the earlier rural setup. This has enabled the increasing number of groups to survive thereby the fragmentation into more groups and factions each claiming its legitimacy to the Naga cause. There are no doubt ideological differences but the rising number of groups has reached such levels where the Nagas as whole has become the laughing stock of others.
It is a paradox that a land where there are no income taxes with citizens who do not understand and know how much they contribute and are supposed to contribute to their country nor willing to learn has to live their daily lives with so many local taxes and subscriptions to pay. Unless a rethinking is done down to the village level, with the days of ‘free money‘from the centre over, and the state is in for the worst times.
