Throwback: A budget speech that inspired Indian taxpayers
pay your taxes’ is probably one of the most frequent messages governments have been trying to pass on to Indian citizens over the years since independence.
Despite repeated pleas, budget reports from the past indicate that tax collection suffered significantly due to lack of monitoring. Tax collection only picked up the pace in India over the last few years after an extensive crackdown on non-taxpayers was initiated by the government.
However, the approach to tax collections was not so strict back in the 1950s and the government was dependent significantly on the moral obligation of people.
One such example emerges from former finance minister Chintaman Deshmukh’s budget speech from 1951-52.
Deskhmukh, who was the third finance minister of independent India, narrated a story about a villager in the Parliament during his budget speech and urged citizens to pay their taxes.
Sir, it to, I believe, the usual custom to end the budget speech with a review of the general financial position of the country but I do not propose to do so. In the rapidly changing conditions all over the world he will indeed be a rash man who can hazard a guess as to the future. But I have little doubt myself about the inherent strength of our financial position and I have every confidence in the ability of our people to sustain and support the Government in whatever measures may be necessary to maintain the finances of the country in a sound position. It is in this hope and in this faith that I have made the substantial demands which this budget makes on the tax-payer, he said.
He, however, shared interaction with an ordinary villager, who was neither in business nor in any form of service. Deshmukh said the villager did not pay any taxes to any of the authorities but added that the villager had a burning desire to help the government.
I have been greatly heartened in this task by a recent communication which I have received from an ordinary villager, who is neither in business nor in service, which I would venture to mention to the House. It is from one who at present pays no tax to any authority, Central, State or local. He says that he has a burning desire to help the Government of India in some way or the other. He has remitted a sum of five rupees to me and has promised to remit a similar sum every year. It is not the small amount that he has offered but the spirit behind the offer that matters and, so long as the common run of our people can produce men and women with this spirit, this country can face the future, however difficult it may be, with confidence, he concluded.
Deshmukh’s budget speech highlighted a farmer who was willing to pay his taxes even without any obligation and inspired many other taxpayers to follow suit.
Almost 70 years later, however, tax collection continues to be a menace in India, forcing the government to initiate action against errant taxpayers.
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