Recently, the much talked about subject in both business and social circles in Tamil Nadu is local taxes. Ever since the government announced schemes to increase electricity tariffs and property taxes, there has been a debate about its fairness, ability to implement and also the intent behind these new proposals.
The fairness question is in the property tax regime. There are a significant number of properties that have violated the rules and norms, such as FSI violation or encroaching public property and so on. When asked, the violators say that it has been approved by the appropriate authority, even though they are clearly violating the city development rules and guidelines. That a non-compliant property, residential or commercial,
that has abused the rule to gain pecuniary advantage, is paying the same (or in some cases lower) tax as a fully compliant property certainly doesn’t appear fair. Can the system not levy a higher annual property tax (which can even be considered a windfall tax or a penalty tax) on non-compliant buildings, until they are restored to full compliance, immaterial of approval or not? Identifying such property or ascertaining its norms violation” or determining ownership… could pose challenges, which is where technology can help.
Identifying violations using Google
If Google’s street view is permitted and becomes country wide, it becomes easy to identify encroachments
and violations. This can be complemented with other technologies, such as digital land records, computer
vision and imagery, available easily, to implement the scheme of disproportionately higher taxes on violators,
until the violations are set right. This will be seen as a fair method by honest citizens, who are majority in number and who comply with all aspects of law. This is a scalable solution, applicable across the board uniformly. Technology can take care of changes in rules, tariffs, continued non-compliances and so on. And just because there may be a few instances that cannot be detected or places where this cannot be implemented should not be the reason to abandon the use of technology to deliver fairness.
Electronic metering of electricity…
Likewise, electronic metering of electricity and water consumption can create a powerful mechanism, not only to charge fair price for their consumption, but also provide invaluable longitudinal data that urban and rural planners can use to service its citizens fairly and transparently.
Citizens must understand and cooperate with such measures, driven by technology. A good answer is the
FastTag system. Instances of violence at toll booths, argument about fairness of tolls and conditions of roads, are things of the past, ever since the universal FastTag system came into play. This system is fully functional, well appreciated and has improved the efficiency of vehicular flow and improving toll collections.
Innovators are even suggesting using FastTag to collect parking charges, both regular parking slots and from
users who are regularly using public spaces disproportionately for parking vehicles, gaining undue advantage and inconveniencing many others.
If governance is about equality in providing citizen services, about fairness in its actions and about planning with a vision supported by data and aspirations, then clearly technology has the solution. In fact, computing
and communication services are less expensive than electricity today, based on the impact it creates and will soon become comparable to water in its ubiquity, appeal and adoption.
Bill Gates is quoted as saying, “the advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.” We are well and truly headed there.
