[Attachment(s) from Ripan Biswas included below]
Dear Editor, Hope you are doing well and thanks for publishing my previous write ups. This is an article titled "If not they, then who?". I will be highly honoured if you publish this article. I apprecite your time to read this article. Thanks Have a nice time With Best Regards Ripan Kumar Biswas New York, U.S.A ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If not they, then who? Ripan Kumar Biswas Ripan.Biswas@yahoo.com Timothy F. Geithner, who is now secretary of treasury under Obama administration, had to pay more than $43,200 in back taxes and interest for underpayments from 2001 to 2004 to get clearance from the Senate Finance Committee to occupy the then President-elect Barack Obama's choice for treasury secretary. To meet the transparency of US administration, Clinton's foundation had to disclose the name of 205,000 donors worldwide before Hillary R Clinton was confirmed by the Senate Foreign Committee as secretary of state. But people of Bangladesh never receive any such information or examples from the country's legislatures, executives, leaders, or politicians that could inspire others. Thanks to an English daily newspaper for bringing up such report that says 42 out of 345 lawmakers in the parliament both from treasury and opposition bench, including three state ministers, have never paid any income tax, claiming they do not have taxable income while according to National Board of Revenue (NBR), each of these lawmakers spent Tk 15 to 20 lakh in the parliamentary election and the limit of tax-free income in the country is 165,000 per year. In addition, according to both Election Commission and NBR, most of these parliamentarians have Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) but very few of them show up in the tax book while some parliamentarians even never feel obligation to have TINs, keeping their huge income secret. Since its independence in 1971, Bangladesh never saw any example from those who were in the driving seat of different government and non-governmental organizations that could motivate others. As democracy is defined as a system of government where the people are in control of how the government operates, what laws it passes, and how things get done, they have every right to know how their elected legislature is running the country. To be respectful to the law in a democratic country everyone, from top level executive to bottom level worker, is bound to show his or her earnings and savings. It is meaningless to expect the general people to be fair when top people are not. According to John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848), the 6th President of the United States, "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." The term being a good leader means that he/she inspires others to follow his/her example. They are leading people to success and also they are responsible for the actions that are taken to do this. In addition, a good leader needs to inspire confidence and represent a strong example of what needs to be aimed for. As we assume legislatures or top people are good leaders, they should have good characters, beliefs and values by which they easily can motivate others, but the negative characteristics of a leader or noted person only convey the wrong message to the people. Calling it as a charter for change, the present ruling government promised that powerful people must have to submit wealth statement annually including general citizen who are bound to do so in its five priority issues in the last election manifesto. Though it is politically motivated according to Awami League (AL), but its party chief, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was detained on corruption charges and asked to submit her wealth statement voluntarily during the last caretaker government. Her arch-rival, Begum Khaleda Zia, former premier of Bangladesh and the chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, forgot to mention her wealth accrued in 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987 and 1991, while she had enjoyed the support of a huge office set-up during her tenure. Taking bribe, hiding wealth report, saving in or buying a house in a foreign country, are very common activities among Bangladeshi leaders only because there is no legal obligation to give their financial status. The White House published on April 15, 2009 the taxable income of the President and Mrs. Michelle Obama for the tax year 2008 as $855,323 in federal taxes and $78,000 in state taxes. The Obamas had $2.35 million in taxable income after taking deductions, which included his salary as a public servant to the US government and the royalties from his two published books, "Dreams from My Father," and "The Audacity of Hope." A further transparent look at President Barack Obama's 2008 tax returns shows that $172,050 was donated to charities like CARE and United Negro College Fund. Government in Bangladesh has extended the time for submitting income- tax return from September 30 to October 30 aiming to collect more tax. Presently, country has 2.2 million TIN holders but only 0.67 of them pay income-tax, says NBR. About 80 percent companies do not pay income tax. The World Bank says Bangladesh's tax-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio is among the lowest in South Asia, even lower than that of Nepal. The income- tax-collection target has been fixed at US$2.40 billion (BDT 165.60 billion) for the current fiscal year, 27 percent higher than last year's target. In fiscal 2008-09, around 0.67 million taxpayers' submitted tax returns involving $144.78 million (BDT 7.92 billion) out of 2.2 million TIN holders. In a fresh move to make its services friendlier to taxpayers, the NBR and the British donor-Department for International Development (DFID)-will pick an international consultancy early next year to come up with a string of innovative solutions that can greatly change the way the NBR functions now. But it is always remain an uphill task to NBR to function independently and properly as it regularly faces government interventions. Very often, it is used as political weapon. It will be difficult to say how much the NBR worked neutrally during the last caretaker government, but no doubt it was the vital weapon to send the politicians, bureaucrats, legislatures, or business persons behind bars. While the present high profiled tax defaulters including ministers are out of legal proceedings, the former AL secretary Abdul Jalil was issued an arrest warrant in a case filed by NBR for dodging income tax to the tune of $5,910. Clearly, the filing of the case and issuance of the arrest warrant against Jalil is an outcome of his recent derogatory statements about the party and ninth parliamentary elections. No doubt, paying tax is a national obligation and a step ahead to make the country financially secured. But the policymakers, particularly those among the politicians, bureaucrat and businessmen, have so far responded very little to bring about positive changes in this issue, as many of them are widely perceived to be involved in the process thereof. Setting a good example is not a "put-on." It's simply something that can positively motivate others. In exercise of its positive motivation, the present government should exercise transparency regarding tax paying and make it a legal obligation for everyone to give his/her wealth status to the government. Saturday, October 17, 2009, New York Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York |
Attachment(s) from Ripan Biswas
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