For five years, real-estate developer Pxxxxxx Sxxxxx ignored government orders to pay his taxes. Then the drummers showed up, beating their instruments and demanding he cough up the cash. Neighbors leaned out windows and gawked.
Within hours, a red-faced Mr. Sxxxxx had written a $945 check to settle his long-standing arrears.
Shame is the name of the game as XXXXX’s local governments try new tools to collect taxes from reluctant citizens. Faced with meager collections and mounting spending needs, Thane’s municipal commissioner, Sxxxxx Jxxxxx, is resorting to public embarrassment of tax scofflaws.
“When you get a notice, you’re the only one aware of it,” said Mr. Jaiswal, who was appointed last year. “A drum band downstairs from your house changes that. Few things are as important to people as their reputation.”
Since the drummers started work early this year in this suburb of Indian commercial capital Mumbai, property-tax revenue has jumped 20%, said Mr. Jaiswal.
Sanjay Bohir, a 50-year-old tin worker who owed $285 in back taxes, rushed to pay up before the band showed up at his house because he couldn’t bear to see his “moral status lowered,” he said.
Vilas Pednerkar panicked when he saw the drummers coming. He owed the city $300 and didn’t want clients of his street-repair company to think he is unreliable.
India has long had problems persuading people to share their earnings with the government. Only 3% of the country’s 1.2 billion people pay taxes, mostly because many are too poor to owe anything, but also because what authorities have said is widespread evasion. Overall, Indian tax collections amount to about 17% of gross domestic product, compared with 25% in the U.S.—where individual income-tax filings are due on Monday—and 33% in the U.K., according to the Heritage Foundation.
Partly as a result, New Delhi has a record of chronic underinvestment in infrastructure, and the country’s health and education systems struggle. Attempts to increase tax revenue have met resistance.
Indians are so tax-averse that jewelers went on strike for more than a month over a new law requiring customers to share their tax identification number if they spend more than $3,000 on jewelry, part of an effort to crack down on wealthy people who may be evading taxes. In 2009, New Delhi lawyers went on strike to protest the imposition of a tax on law firms.
more here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-...-a-troupe-of-drummers-at-your-door-1460908522
[video=youtube;2cEPydnb0Ns]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cEPydnb0Ns[/video]
Within hours, a red-faced Mr. Sxxxxx had written a $945 check to settle his long-standing arrears.
Shame is the name of the game as XXXXX’s local governments try new tools to collect taxes from reluctant citizens. Faced with meager collections and mounting spending needs, Thane’s municipal commissioner, Sxxxxx Jxxxxx, is resorting to public embarrassment of tax scofflaws.
“When you get a notice, you’re the only one aware of it,” said Mr. Jaiswal, who was appointed last year. “A drum band downstairs from your house changes that. Few things are as important to people as their reputation.”
Since the drummers started work early this year in this suburb of Indian commercial capital Mumbai, property-tax revenue has jumped 20%, said Mr. Jaiswal.
Sanjay Bohir, a 50-year-old tin worker who owed $285 in back taxes, rushed to pay up before the band showed up at his house because he couldn’t bear to see his “moral status lowered,” he said.
Vilas Pednerkar panicked when he saw the drummers coming. He owed the city $300 and didn’t want clients of his street-repair company to think he is unreliable.
India has long had problems persuading people to share their earnings with the government. Only 3% of the country’s 1.2 billion people pay taxes, mostly because many are too poor to owe anything, but also because what authorities have said is widespread evasion. Overall, Indian tax collections amount to about 17% of gross domestic product, compared with 25% in the U.S.—where individual income-tax filings are due on Monday—and 33% in the U.K., according to the Heritage Foundation.
Partly as a result, New Delhi has a record of chronic underinvestment in infrastructure, and the country’s health and education systems struggle. Attempts to increase tax revenue have met resistance.
Indians are so tax-averse that jewelers went on strike for more than a month over a new law requiring customers to share their tax identification number if they spend more than $3,000 on jewelry, part of an effort to crack down on wealthy people who may be evading taxes. In 2009, New Delhi lawyers went on strike to protest the imposition of a tax on law firms.
more here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-...-a-troupe-of-drummers-at-your-door-1460908522
[video=youtube;2cEPydnb0Ns]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cEPydnb0Ns[/video]
