Municipal Property Taxes
Theoretically sound but ineffective

By RUP KHADKA

Property based taxes have been used widely at the local level in many countries, since these taxes satisfy most of the principles of a good local tax. For example, property taxes satisfy the principles of autonomy of local taxation, which advocates that the local governments are given some autonomy to fix tax rates or bases according to local conditions. Under this situation, there may be a variation in tax rates among municipalities. Variations in the rates or bases of property taxes are likely to cause fewer distortions in the economy than would similar variations in income and commodity taxes, i.e. resources are not likely to be diverted due to differentiation in property taxes due to the immovable nature of house and land, unless the base and rate differentiation are very large among municipalities.

Property taxes also provide a high degree of accountability due to their visibility to the taxpayers. This is because since electorates are aware of the tax liability, they keep interest in the income and expenditure of the municipalities and complain about any mismanagement of the public fund. It makes municipalities accountable to the local people.

The base of property tax is localized and easily controlled by the municipalities. Property taxes levied on local residents cannot be exported, either. Since revenue generated from municipal taxes is used in the activities benefiting municipal people, it enhances compliance also.

It is, therefore, necessary to establish and develop property-based taxes as the major source of municipal revenue.

While property-based taxes are good members of the local tax family and these taxes are major sources of revenue of local governments in many countries, they have not been effective in Nepal. For example, municipalities did not implement the roof top tax, which was a property-based tax. While municipalities had been authorized to levy this tax since the early 1960s, this tax was not levied by several municipalities and was not effective in those municipalities, which had levied it. This may be seen from the very poor relative position of this tax in the municipal tax system, where it has remained less than 0.50% of the total municipal tax revenue.

Municipalities did not want to implement house roof tax due to the following reasons:

Octroi might probably be the most important factor why municipalities were not interested in the house roof tax and other municipal taxes. This is because the political office-holders preferred to collect revenue through octroi, which was not directly felt by their voters and easy to collect administratively. Octroi was very attractive from a revenue point of view, as it generated on average more than 80 percent of total municipal tax revenue.

The maximum rate of house roof top tax was fixed at Rs. 10 from 1965 to 1988. This rate was very low. It would have hardly met the cost of collecting the tax. As a result, this tax was not attractive for the municipalities. The low rate, however, was only one reason for the general lack of interest in the tax among municipalities because even after the significant increase in tax rates in 1988 municipalities did not levy this tax effectively.

Since the burden of property tax was highly visible to the public, municipal political office-holders thought and still think that they would not be re-elected if they implement property based tax. Politicians wanted to please their constituents by not levying a tax on houses.

Although town dwellers are required to take approval from the municipalities for the construction of houses and buildings, municipalities have not maintained proper records of the houses and buildings in their areas of jurisdiction. In the absence of such records, it was not possible to levy house roof tax effectively. The tax administration of the municipality was, and remains, very poor, and not capable of implementing any broad-based tax at the municipal level.

Other property taxes viz., house and land tax and land revenue have not been attractive to municipalities. In the early 1990s, there was a provision to share the proceeds of house and land tax between His Majesty's Government (HMG) and the municipalities. Municipalities were expected to help the tax administration of the central government in collecting house and land tax and share 75 percent of the tax collected, other than from government owned enterprises. This, however, did not occur because, as per the tax officials, the municipalities did not extend their cooperation in the collection of this tax.

In 1995/96, HMG transferred its land revenue collection powers to the municipalities/village development committees. The Land Revenue Department transferred all administrative functions relating to land revenue to the local government. In this connection, an inventory of landowners was handed over by the land revenue offices to the municipalities/village development committees, which were made responsible for collecting land revenue.

The transfer was, however, immediate without any preparation. No detailed procedures were developed to collect this tax at the local level. Similarly, no training programmes were organised on land revenue for the officials of the municipalities. So the transition was not smooth. Municipalities/VDCs have not taken much initiative in the implementation of land revenue. This has result in lower level compliance.

The Local Self-Governance Act 1999 included land revenue and house and land tax in the local tax family. This means that now HMG does not levy these taxes. These taxes are fully under the jurisdiction of local bodies. The new law has also granted authority to the municipality to levy an integrated property tax. But in general, municipalities have not been eager to levy these taxes. There has been a long tradition of land revenue at the central level. Similarly, house and land tax is also a relatively established tax. Now, HMG does not levy these taxes. If municipalities/village development committees do not implement these taxes effectively, the long and well-established practice of collecting these taxes will die gradually. It will be unfortunate. So municipalities should make every effort to develop property based taxes as their major source of tax revenue.

On such days

By SMRITI JAISWAL

There was once somebody who told me I did not take life seriously enough, by which he meant I was not a political animal. He said it rather enviously, like a hungry man would tell another that he did not take food seriously enough. It was a just statement because during the time I was rather amongst the crew who thought travelling fun, who thought sight-seeing fun, who thought advertisement watching a more fruitful escape of time than watching the news, and who laughed at her father because for him life ended outside the boundaries of his country. I was another Mediterranean girl who thought worries were too much of a bother anyway.

Those were good days. Days when my friends envied my zeal, my ambitions, my ultra large dreams. I had written a letter to my friend during those days describing how I felt while travelling in a bus. I cannot recall exact words now but they were to the effect that I liked the way everybody in the bus is a stranger and yet the fact that their destinations are the same lend a solidarity to the event lacking in most other encounters. And then there was a time when I told my father I wanted to join a tourism magazine because there is a charm to describing scenic beauties. And I wanted to join Mass Communication because I liked the idea of doing up some really cool commercials. And I liked empty roads because on empty roads my nephew could ride his bicycle with fearlessness and speed.

I don’t know where all that has gone now. My friends, my parents (my father in particular), my colleagues no longer think it admirable to be so unpolitical an animal. I have lost the right to relax in a bus, I have lost the right to bask in the security of indifference which pervades a bus. Buses are synonymous with endless checkings by distrustful policemen, it means being under suspect. It means the stranger beside you could be someone with a bomb in his bag. His destination could be very different from yours. Most of all it means being burnt up alive, being reduced to a lump of unrecognizable block.

Tourism is analogous to loss. It is a sector provided generously by God to us and yet today it is a sector poor and ugly by implication. There are no tourism magazines because there are no tourists. Our country is too monstrous for somebody to want to look at it, so there are no magazines I could join.

And I obviously can not join Mass Communication in order to produce advertisements. That would be a crime. Our nation needs journalists, people who can report scenes of death, privation, loots, fear, curfew – these are the realities of our country, this is what needs to be reported. It is hideous to want to do any thing else. And most of all empty roads are not to be admired. There are too many implications behind them, too many deprivations. Empty roads is another name for empty houses, houses with people lost, dead, imprisoned, unwanted, wanted. They imply so much. They are not safe. My nephew is not to leave the house on days when roads are empty. He could get lost there, on that uncrowded road. He could never come back. On days when roads are empty, Nepal is mourning, Nepal is bund. On such days people shrivel in homes while bombs blow up children on streets. On such days Nepalese are orphans, there is no one to look after them – not even the vehicles on streets, not even the pollution which is so much the part of us now, not even the sunshine. It is a vile, vindictive, unsafe parent – Nepal on such days.

What are we leaping to ? Where to ? What are our palms itching to grab ?

There aren’t sufficient answers, or satisfactory ones. The terroristic attack under which we are struggling is wound too tightly around us to breathe out truthful answers. All is lost in the debris of this filthy war.

It is no longer possible to live in a happy, unaware world, in an individual world in an individual way. One gets pulled in anyway. So many people killed today, so many houses burnt, so many neighbours looted, so many women raped; these tautologies are the most significant truths of today. These are the everyday news. There is nothing new to learn. And yet the monotonous repetitions do not create ennui. Because the people being killed everyday scream of one’s own unsafety, because the houses being burnt could belong to a best friend, because the neighbourhood burnt could be yours. And a woman fears a solitary walk, the ghostly molester follows her uneasy heart. She is raped and hacked to pieces and packed in insignificant black polythenes to be dumped in a nearby garbage can – all in her uneasy heart. Everyone is alive and concretely conscious of gushing death.

Life is no longer standing still. It is accelerated a little too high. There is no time now to leisurely plan out dreams, to write up schedules. There is only the time for frantic action. In inaction too many things may crowd up. Fear may crowd up so firmly as to paralyze all activities, loss may crowd up so hard as to derive for eternity, and fearful thoughts may crowd up so hard as to make living a nightmarish affair. Today even fantasies are dark, even imaginations are fatal. There is fear of everything, for everything. Even in flowers that messengers bring to our gates resides burning, cutting, bleeding death. Nothing but freedom is a temptation.

Our elders are lost in this situation which they did not create. We are doomed to make choices we don’t want. And our youngsters stare at an insecure future. There are questions in every mind. How did we get here? What have we done to deserve this? Who is responsible? Will the responsible be punished? Or will they live it off like kings?

How will we remain human, how will we not dwindle into a mass of humiliating loss and fear?

And so politics has touched me. And so to remain untouched has become a crime.

Oppressive journalism vs qualitative research methods

By Dr Shreeram Prasad Lamichhane

Journalism carries a high value in all spheres of a nation since it has recognition as the "Fourth Estate". Placed in such a status, the role of journalism is profound and sacred. Generally, reporting factual information is the normal professional role of journalism. Moreover, it has the added responsibility to play a corrective role by pointing out mistakes, wrongdoings and oversights in the state’s affairs.

Truly professional journalism contributes to establishing truth in the society and also helps to correct misbehaviour and malpractices evidenced usually in the state machinery. Above all, credible journalism may serve as an effective instrument to empower the nation-state by way of maintaining checks and balance among the major arms of the state. These are the virtues of well-intended journalism. In the Nepalese context, what is normally experienced is that these are eclipsed by numerous vices. Usually, the popular term for such journalism is "yellow journalism". Further degradation of "yellow journalism" may be labelled as "oppressive journalism". Some examples of oppressive journalism are as follows:

Reporting of rumour: Often rumour is reported about a person’s professional periphery, family life and about an organisation’s affairs which naturally distort the integrity and credibility of individuals and institutions concerned. To malign and insult people in their public and private life without any fault or guilt on their part is essentially an act of oppression. Insensitivity toward the potential damage caused by such oppressive acts is undoubtedly inhuman. Such an act of unpardonable oppression causes disaster in the family and social life and also in the organisational environment.

Reporting for revenge: On account of personal animosity retaliatory actions are often targeted against the adversary. Usually, such actions are activated by publishing news aimed at humiliating the rival. The extent to which they are reliable is not logically evaluated and reasonably judged. What implications such deplorably fabricated news will have in the life of the concerned individuals are rarely reflected upon. This kind of gross negligence on the part of journalists can be termed simply as "assaulting oppression".

Reporting malicious news due to unfulfilled interest: It is normal human behaviour to use various means to fulfil one’s own interests. Obviously, as we have seen very often, even unfair means are followed to make personal gain. Among this class, media people are no exception in the pursuit of individual interests. Usually, on account of legal and other palpable reasons, some of their demands cannot be fulfilled. Enraged as a result of unmet demands, they are led by the ill motive to insult and defame people in public position by publishing malicious news. This type of inconsiderate behaviour is undoubtedly "dehumanising oppression".

These are some of the major facets of "oppressive journalism." Other forms of oppression can be seen in the form of character assassination, dehumanisation, false accusation and demoralisation .

Such unrestrained journalism brutalises the reality. If it is allowed to continue honesty will be the casualty. Integrity and sincerity
will cease to be norms. Consequently, "mediaterror" will be the order of the day. Therefore, appropriate measures of reform and correction need to be emphasised by media people themselves. For this purpose, this sector should take sincere initiative to reorient itself towards genuine professionalism. To this end, the relevance of qualitative research methods seems highly pertinent.

The importance of qualitative research methodology has been increasingly acknowledged as a more effective approach to uncover the truth. This approach lays greater emphasis on interpersonal relations and prioritises mutual interactions and sharing each other’s feelings in a continuous manner. Basically, the qualitative research method comprises three major approaches for uncovering the reality. They are 1. participant observation 2. interviewing and 3. document analysis.

Participant observation: Participant observation emphasises the need for complete involvement of the investigator (journalist in the present context) in the concerned case in order to find out what actually exists in reality. The pertinence of participant observation in the extraction of genuine information is highly recognised. In considering the responsibility and accountability of the journalist, devotion of a longer period of time in uncovering the reality must get high priority.

Interviewing: Reliance on first hand information in contrast to second or third hand information should be given higher value. If there are concerns to be clarified or to be confirmed and issues to be investigated, conducting interviews with concerned people or authorities is the most appropriate way. This will certainly helps in verifying and confirming the crude information, which may have been gathered from stray sources. This will, of course, place a high demand on the journalist for devoting more time to the processing of the information collected and bringing out the true findings. In order to play a responsible role as the "Fourth Estate", there should be readiness on the part of the journalists to perform competently by being involved in the case in question both extensively and intensively.

3. Document study: The "Fourth Estate" has every right to access all sorts of information sources including official documents and files. Allocation of adequate amount of time as required to study all essential materials should be worked out. This will help the journalist cross check his own information and the information gathered from document study. This strategy will prevent the journalist from misreporting, rather it will add a better professional quality to his/her work.

Biased, random, unconfirmed and unproven reporting will inflict damage not only on the concerned authorities and individuals but also on society and the "Fourth Estate" itself. Today’s journalism in Nepal, most commonly, seems to have followed an oppressive practice. Therefore, in order to set off the process of purification in this sector, adoption of some qualitative research techniques as mentioned above is highly pertinent.

(The author is member-secretary of Higher Secondary Education Board)