The Public Action Committee (PAC) under the aegis of Naga Council Dimapur reiterated its appeal to the Naga political groups to immediately stop serving demand notes and intimidating the business community with arms in Dimapur and keep their commitment to shun away from various tax collection “with true spirit and not in words alone”.
Also, condemning the multiple taxes being levied on the public by the Naga political groups, welfare unions/societies and state government agencies, the council in a statement on Tuesday said the PAC held a discussion on the issue on July 27. It was resolved that 19 tribal hohos, Naga Council Dimapur, Dimapur Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Naga Women Hoho Dimapur and the Senior Citizens Forum will conduct consultative meetings with their respective members/tribes and deliberate on how to streamline the burden of multiple taxation, syndicates, lease systems and various taxes by Naga political groups, unions/organisations besides the state government agencies.
The reports from these meetings are to be submitted to the PAC on or before August 18, the statement said adding the taxation issue has added to the burden of the public and is affecting the economy.
On July 26, an NGO – Nagaland Public Rights Awareness and Action Forum – demanded that the Nagaland government should not delay any further in implementing the recommendations of the high power committee report to curb multiple taxations in the state. The state government set up the committee to look into the issue of multiple taxations in the state.
The forum said it was yet to get its hands on the contents of the recommendation made by the three-member committee headed by former Supreme Court judge H K Sema despite filing an RTI application in the office of Nagaland chief minister on April, 2016. It sought to know the contents of the recommendations made by the high power committee.
It said the RTI application was transferred by the CMO to home department on May 12, 2016. After much delay, the home department provided information only on the expenditure incurred by the three- member committee which amounted to whopping Rs 47.88.476 lakh.
While asserting that people have every right to know the recommendation made by the committee as multiple taxation is a concern for all Nagas and because huge public fund was spent as expenditure of the committee.