Eight years since the High Power Committee (HPC) constituted to look into the issue of “illegal and multiple taxations” submitted its report to the state chief minister on June 10,2015 nothing has been heard of it nor made public nor action taken on the report.
It was on August 5, 2014 that the High Power Committee (HPC) was constituted to look into the issue of “illegal and multiple taxations” which was the outcome of the massive ACAUT Public Rally in 2013 in Dimapur. The complaints were made by public and civil societies. The four-member HPC was headed by justice(retd) H.K. Sema retired Supreme Court Judge as chairman, K.K. Sema IAS(Retd), Joel Nillo Kath as members and additional secretary justice & law as member-secretary.
The HPC, which had already submitted its 94-page extensive report in 2015 , made startling observations on how the web of organized illegal taxations has affected all and sundry in the State.
Nagaland Post is bringing out an edited two-part series report on observations and recommen-dations by the HPC. In its report, the HPC has made a damning observation on the factors contributing to unbridled price rise of every conceivable commodity on sale in the market. HPC revealed that the unbri-dled price rise was triggered by stifling multiple taxation regimes of the Naga Political Groups (NPGs) that was crippling the economy of the average common man.
This net effect was also directly responsible for adversely impacting on all the other districts in the State as well noted HPC.
It noted that the ineffectiveness of the district administration and police to stem this tide had exposed the helpless citizens to bear the brunt of irrational taxation without any scope of re-dressal. “The NPGs had well and truly been able to establish the fear factor in every sphere of life. They had a stranglehold control of the market,” it noted.
HPC undertook its task by examining 260 Prosecution Witnesses (PWs) and four Defence Witnesses (DWs)-a total of 264 witnesses all told – in connection with the wide range of subjects related to the terms of reference such as:
(a) multiple taxation being imposed by the NPGs; (b) the questionable fund raising norms by various Government Departments and other unions/associations/NGOs at the check gates and elsewhere; (c) the prevalent questionable practices causing undue price escalation in the market; (d) the anomalies and malpractices in the system that contribute to abnormal price rise; (e) Non-transparent practices that facilitate blatant corruption, favouritism and nepotism; and (f) Inept management systems that allows non-local businessmen the convenience of tax evasion on a huge scale at the expense of the State Exchequer, etc.
The HPC report revealed that incriminating evidences that surfaced in the course of deposition by the PWs,established a “mindboggling” array of taxation being systematically imposed by the NPGs in all fronts.
The HPC also summoned and examined a wide cross-section of people engaged in business enterprises who had direct or indirect exposure to both the NPG taxation and the government departments.
According to HPC, depositions rendered by the business community before its member clear-ly established an overview fact that the NPGs had a very elaborate taxation network in place primarily commandeered by fear factor, the report stated.
With a focused reference to Dimapur, HPC said the evidence clearly brought to light that all goods entering the State were taxed by the NPGs without exception at New Field / Dillai Inter-State check gates. (TO BE CONTINUED)