ABSTRACT
The collection of revenues, historically the most important financial activity of the State, is still the one operation which touches the lives of all citizens and makes them keenly aware of the existence of the State. The visit of the Revenue Officer or, what is more common nowadays, the receipt of a written demand that a certain amount has to be contributed to the public revenues and must be paid before a specified date is the most efficacious way of making the ordinary citizen realize that he owes some obligations to the State and must discharge them well. The mien of the tax-gatherer has been, and is still, stern; and it has not been found possible even in the most advanced self-governing democracies to raise public revenues without the use of the coercive power of the State—a factor generally kept in the background in normal times, but one whose existence is essential for providing the Government with the where-withal for carrying on the administration of the country. “Mere willingness to support public services,” to quote from Taussig’s “Principles of Economics,” “does not grow apace with the conviction of the need of public service.” That is so in all countries. In India the existence of the foreign rule and consequent perversion of the political conscience of the people makes taxation more onerous and makes it still more unlikely that the public spirit can be relied upon to any considerable extent for the realization of the dues of the State. The fact makes the need of efficient and strictly honest revenue-collecting agency all the more paramount and one that is, on that very account, difficult to satisfy. It is well-known that our revenue departments are, collectively, the weakest link of the financial chain. That is due to causes which are deep-seated in the facts of our political life and cannot be cured merely by improvements in organization and procedure. But the organization of these departments is far from satisfactory, and material progress can be made if the administration of these services can be improved by introducing radical changes in their constitution and composition. It has been said that the readiness with which people pay the taxes is a very good measure of the development of civic sense amongst them. It would be too optimistic to expect that the mentality of the people of India, so far as the collection of the taxes is concerned, can undergo any appreciable change in the near future; but the work of educating the public to a higher sense of duty in this respect will be rendered distinctly easier if the revenue-collecting agencies can be depended upon for fulfilling their functions honestly and well. As it is, they have acquired a reputation which will retard progress in this direction. With the political evolution of the country, it is necessary that the Revenue Officers should inspire greater confidence as regards their efficiency and honesty in order that the collection of taxes may proceed with as little friction as it is possible to achieve under the present circumstances.
