There is no nice way to say this, but the erosion of public trust from our tax system is absolutely deserved.
Taxes are an important part of any nation's gradual progress, but, unfortunately, it has been a recurring point of vexation for Bangladeshis since time immemorial. With obtuse and even arcane levels of bureaucracy and a complete lack of transparency in how tax-payer money is spent, it all results in 1.16 crore of those capable of paying income taxes in the country remaining out of the tax net and Bangladesh having the lowest rate of tax-payer return submissions in the entire sub-continent.
To that end, the recent decision made by the Dhaka South City Corporation levying a Tk500 annual tax on dogs kept as pets comes off as nothing short of a slap in the face of common sense, and does nothing to improve public trust when it comes to taxation.
According to a recent public notification, pet owners will have to pay an annual tax for each animal kept as a pet alongside mandatory registration. While free vaccinations and veterinarian visits are chalked up as benefits, the visits themselves are not explicitly stated to be covered by the tax.
This makes absolutely no sense, regardless of pet ownership.
While the idea behind registration of pets and having to pay taxes is not necessarily a bad one, the current rules are decidedly unfinished and lack any semblance of careful thought being put behind them.
If free vaccinations are the only benefits that a dog-owner gets, for example, for paying this tax, where does the rest of the money go? Other nations which have a pet tax use the money not just for subsidized vaccinations, but also for emergency animal rescue efforts during natural disasters, ambulances for injured or ailing animals, and more importantly animal birth control programs.
Our tax system has far too many problems to discuss in one go, but it is the lack of faith and trust on the public end that ultimately does the most damage. Provisions such as these do nothing to improve matters.
