Taxes, files, fines and whatnot...

September 23, 2017

Are we trapped in a country under siege?

When we went to the polls to bring forth a set of Utopians, who promised us a dreamland to live in, did we expect this kind of calamitous setup?

The people who promoted a big CHANGE ambushed us and took us hostage. Only now do we realise their ulterior agendas, comprising Revenge, Jealousy, Corruption and Treachery.

They duped us,and now we are experiencing  the great change, but not what they promised - and it has resulted in the daily demos, pickets and other protests occurring round the country.

Now they propose another in the long line of Utopian and contentious issues. They intend to open a tax file for every breathing human being on this island. 

This reminds us of the travails that the Soviet Union went through under the dictatorial regime of Joseph Stalin, or Hitler's Third Reich.We feel that, here, a combination of Gobbels and Stalin rule the roost!

 “Big brother is watching you!”  A tax file for everyone, not even beggers will be exempted from this calamity.

What about the middle class, made up of individuals who toil eight hours daily, and slave another two to three extra hours for the sake  of the well being of their families, and the standard they have to maintain in society? If the extra monies thus earned pass the cutt-off mark, they’ll be hounded by the Tax Robots.

Taxes here, taxes there and taxes everywhere! The country will be flooded with these taxes—direct and indirect— but no money for spending. The whole country is at a standstiil without knowing what will happen next. Nothing does happen anymore, and everything—commerce, investment,food production, tourism—  seems to be frozen to the core. Only the powers that be seem to prosper and thrive.

On top of these taxes, there are punitive fines, especially those related to traffic violations. Reports say that for seven major violations, the fine to be imposed is Rs. 25,000. Who will prosper from this? Obviously, only the cash-strapped powers that be and the corrupt traffic "rulers of the road".It is a common story that if you oil certain hands, you can get away without paying traffic fines; in this instance you can give a reduced amount instead of the real fine and go scot free.

How can the poor man, or an individual from the lower middle class, who owns a ramshackle vehicle and maintains it with the greatest  difficulty, manage to pay such an enormous fine due to the violation of a traffic rule by mistake? He will have to go and live in the Government Boarding House for a while, not being able to pay the Rs. 25,000 fine.

All these unwarrannted issues are the result of the wicked, selfish steps taken by Utopian administrators who have both their legs and minds in rich western countries. Their standard response is “If  the Americans or the Britons or for that matter Germans can follow this why can’t Sri Lankans  implement it?” They are, all of them, brainwashed by the unscrupulous and exploitative western powers and  their undesirable local collaborators, whose prime concern is the division of the country and the sale of our valuable family silver.

It is time to end all these nonsensical  measures and concentrate on developing our own assets and show the world that we have the will and the power to stand on our own feet, like what the courageous Cubans did.

And we should not forget for a second that when the tribes of the West were painting themselves with wood and subsisted by eating roots and bark, we were enjoying a rich and self-sufficient civilization.

By Vijaya Ariyarathne