Understanding the Government...2

The year 1900 AD. Mysore.

Raju is sitting in his room, ready to go out and meet the public. His Aunt is sitting by his side, invisible to others.

A tall old man, the minister, comes inside, bows, and says “Maharaj, can we go to the meeting now?”

“Which meeting is this minister?”

“Maharaj, this is the regular review meeting of the functioning of your government. We hold it once a month. Your kingdom has 10 districts, and the head of each district is here.”

“Oh, ok! Let’s go. What do I have to do there?”

“Maharaj, you need to see if they have done the work you have asked them to do. If they have not, seek the reason and solve the issues if any”.

“What type of works they are minister?”

“They are three types Maharaj. First and foremost is to ensure that the district is peaceful so that people can do their normal work without any problem. Secondly, we need to facilitate the public to do their work, like, make roads, construct dams, maintain markets where they can come and sell their produce etc. Thirdly, we also take up welfare activities, like construction of good schools, colleges, libraries etc, which will help the public to become better citizens.”

“Oh, ok good! Where do we get money for doing this minister?”

“We impose tax Maharaj. When the farmers grow crops, we take a share in that. Earlier our people used to go to the villages during harvest, and collect 1/3rd of the produce. Now, we take it in the form of money.”

“Oh ok! But, then you wait till the farmer sells his crop and then you collect?"

“No Maharaj that would require one of our officers to track each farmer! We can’t employee so many officials! So, we fix the tax for each farmer, and he has to pay that to us, whether he sells it or not! He can pay from is previous year savings or he can borrow and pay to us! In that way, we get regular tax.”

“Oh ok! But, what if he doesn't have money at all, say the crops have failed?”

“Maharaj, you are right! At times, the farmers say that the crop has failed and so tax can’t be paid. Those times, our officers go to the spot, check the real facts, and then except those farmers from paying the tax.”

“That means, if we don’t get good rain and thus a good crop, we lose our tax revenue?”

“Yes Maharaj. We do. That’s why we also have another indirect way of collecting tax.”

“What is that?”

“That is levying a tax on every product sold in the market! Suppose a match box is produced at 10 paisa, we put a tax of 5 paisa on that. Means, the person who sells the matchbox will pay 5 paisa for every box sold.”

“Ok! Interesting! So, the matchbox whose cost is just 10 paisa, is actually sold for 15 paisa, and out of that, 5 paisa comes to us?!”

“Yes Maharaj. As people will keep buying matchboxes regularly, we will get our revenue also regularly”.

“But, minister, here also we need money in the hands of the people to buy?”

“Yes Maharaj. You are right. Our tax depends on how much surplus money the public have in hand. Thus it varies every year. When the monsoon is fine, and there is a huge productivity, we get full taxes. If rains fail, or some pest attack happens, then our tax also is less. However, our expenditure is almost same every year. So we keep a buffer in our revenues.”

“Ok Minister, let us now go to the meeting.”

(to be continued...)