State within a State [1]
Friday, September 8, 2006 - 13:45. Updated on Sunday, December 15, 2013 - 23:11.
Editor,
Mr. Tuaileva's letter comes to no surprise at the situation of Tonga's electricity today. The electricity rates have increased and the Government has got its hands twisted in a very embarrassing conflict of interest case with the Shoreline issue. The Government is apparently what they call a "State within a State", whereby Tonga's national assets are run and owned by the King's siblings. If this were a private company owned by a commoner as we have seen with the Domestic Airline license battle then it would have been a totally different story.
The Tongan people may do their marches and show banners of disgust towards Shoreline but at the end of the day, it is basically a Business. Privatizing Tonga...s electricity was a wrong move for Tonga. In saying that, the Tongan people didn...t have a voice in Parliament to stop this hand over and change. The Political system in Tonga doesn...t give the people of Tonga a voice at all. The people...s representatives will always be outnumbered when the House goes to vote. Which always swings towards the Royals wishes. That is why Tonga needs change and reform to allow the people...s voice and vote count as something. If not, then the Government will have a lot of questions to answer for, when Tongan Tax payers put in 10% of their earnings to this Tax system reform while the Government goes on a spending spree and without any accountability of where monies or investments have been spent.
Tonga's New Tax System
The aim of this new Tax Reform is to improve Tax administration and a better Tax collection system. With the slogan from the Revenue Department ...For a better and Fairer Tax System..., this Flat rate of 10% of earnings above $TOP 2,500.00 threshold seems reasonable, however, several issues and shortfalls occurs.
This new Tax System Reform suits countries with a more Democratic system. Reason being is because in this type of system the Tax payers are the voice and voters who chooses leaders of the country that will guide the nation towards it...s Budget and Expenditure for a certain term. The leaders are accountable for every little cent that it will spend or over spend on, the services which they will provide will dictate the future of another term of office, if voters or tax payers are pleased.
As you can see in Tonga...s case, it is a sad story. All the Tax that is collected with the new Consumption Tax on imported goods and services and Income tax go to a pool of Revenue that Tonga has seem to splash around without any accountability whatsoever. Tongan Tax payers (majority) vote only 9 members of people...s representatives (even though 2 members move to ministerial roles after 3 terms, and a by election the people vote again for another 2 to fill the vacant seats) versus 23 Government opposition. Does that seem fair? A majority of Tongans handing in 10%(Income Tax) and 15%(Consumption Tax) of Taxes to a Government that has no accountability of expenditure and no reprisal of spending because the People are always outnumbered in voting.
More over, the flat tax of 10% is a huge dip in the pockets of many low-income earners, but a shallow hand for the most wealthy. This favors the high bracket earners, bringing back to the old saying as ...the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.... The gap between the rich and poor in Tonga is increasing, which will have seismic effects on Tonga...s society as a whole. Increasing crime rates, theft, unemployment and selling of drugs in order to survive the gap of prosperity. This is common throughout the world, but it puts you into perspective when you see it first hand occurring already in Tonga.
Regards,
William Mariner
ionaxe [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk (ionaxe@ya)