Towards tax literacy: A drive by the young

Generally, low revenue potential, poverty, lack of awareness, negligence and the absence of fiscal mandates result in poor rates of tax collection at panchayats in rural India. Normally, a panchayat flock — including the Panchayat Development Officer (PDO), the president and other members and staff — hold an annual ‘Kara Vasoolathi Masacharane’, a door-to-door visiting programme to persuade villagers to pay taxes.

But in a new initiative, the Hosakote Gram Panchayat of T Narasipura taluk has involved students from a local school in a tax collection drive. This resulted in an upsurge in the collection of taxes in a short span of two months.

The gram panchayat collected Rs 10.9 lakh in taxes in the previous financial year. But during this financial year, tax revenue crossed Rs 12 lakh. Out of this, Rs 3.58 lakh was accumulated through the collection drive conducted by the students.

Discussing this initiative, PDO Poornima V N says, “Taking inspiration from the Swachh Bharat Mission, we decided to involve children in encouraging their parents to pay panchayat taxes on priority. The involvement of students has resulted in tax payment in 75 to 80 per cent of households.” 

Hale Kempaiyyana Hundi village, in this panchayat, was shortlisted to enforce panchayat tax rights. Sixty-four students from the government high school were involved in the initiative in November. Staff and people's representatives of the local panchayat educated the students on how the panchayat mobilises income internally through tax collection, and how it is utilised for infrastructure and developmental activities in the village.

After that, a letter calling villagers to follow through with their tax payments was circulated through the children. Thereafter, the panchayat witnessed a rise in tax collection. The students also sensitised their families and neighbours on the various types of taxes, including property tax, water tax, library cess, health cess, and business-related taxes. 

Taking pride in her students’ role in the upsurge of tax collection in the rural local body, school headmistress Manjula H says, “Such initiatives will help students understand the developmental initiatives taken up by the local government and shape them to be responsible citizens.”

Parents in the village also express their happiness about their children’s understanding of the tax collection. Mahadeva, a resident of the village, says, “Both my daughter and son study in the Kempaiyyana Hundi school. Both came to me and said, ‘tax kattale beku’ (you must pay tax). I went and paid tax then.”

Another resident of the village, Prameela, feels delighted that her daughter, Keerthana, has gained knowledge of tax collection and is educating their neighbours and relatives about it. 

Harshitha, a student of Class 10, says she is aware of the developmental work taken up by the panchayat as she regularly visits the digital library for her studies. She says that her father was aware of the tax payment, but he was not very keen on paying it regularly. However, he paid his taxes when she shared with him that it would help with getting more facilities at school. “Panchayat representatives assured us that they would construct a stage and a smart classroom if they could collect sufficient revenue from taxes. We wanted these facilities at our school. Thus, we shared about mandatory tax payments to our family, relatives and neighbours. A week ago, our school stage was built,” says Harshitha.

Divya, another Class 10 student, says that before initiating the tax collection drive, she was aware of the house tax but was uninformed about the water tax and other imposable taxes. Gaining awareness has been invaluable for her, as she has been able to share it with her extended family as well.