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Taxes crippling Burmese people, says report
Irrawaddy - September 1, 2010
Saw Yan Naing – There are subsistence farmers in Burma paying more than half their income in taxes while the ruling generals divert state funds into their own pockets, according to a report by a leading human rights group.
The report, issued in Bangkok on Wednesday by the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma), charged that while the majority of Burma's people live in abject poverty, the military regime and its cronies spend more than 50 percent of the national budget on the military and less than 1.3 percent on health and education combined.
Alison Vicary, a researcher at Burma Economic Watch, said at the launch of the report that the current tax system in Burma benefited only the military regime.
The report said the junta is implementing a system of corrupt taxation which fails to comply with any accepted norms, and fails to stop the diversion of government revenues into private pockets. This usage of taxation by the regime is a tool of repression, the report said.
ND-Burma said the tax system also contributed to the ongoing and systematic violation of basic human rights: the right to an adequate standard of living, housing, education and the right to be free from forced labor.
The ND-Burma report also charged that the regime's corrupt practices violate the UN Convention on Corruption, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, all of which Burma had signed.
The report listed a range of corrupt acts that occur under the guise of taxation, such as farmers being forced to grow certain crops and sell them at a low price to the army, goods being confiscated and not returned until a payment is made, arbitrary high payments at Burmese military checkpoints, as well as forced "donations" for such events as festivals and school construction.
The ND-Burma called on the Burmese regime to reduce expenditure on the military and increase the funding of healthcare, education and other basic needs of the people.
The organization also urged India, China and members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), especially Thailand, to publicly recognize that arbitrary taxation is one of the main causes of migration and therefore put pressure on the Burmese regime to reform its taxation systems and establish democracy.
The ND-Burma also called on the UN to pressure the regime to fulfill its obligations under the convention on forced or compulsory labour, to protect victims bringing legal suits in forced labour cases against any retaliation and to fully cooperate with the International Labor Organization.
The UN was also urged to tell Burma's regime to stop the use of child soldiers and fulfill its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The ND-Burma also called on financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asia Development Bank to stop providing technical support to the Burmese regime through loans or grants to the Greater Mekong Sub-region program, which involves the military government, and to publicly disclose the percentage of funds already allocated to Burmese generals.
The ND-Burma also urged multinational corporations, donors and development groups to ensure that standards for transparency, accountability, governance and human rights are implemented if they operate in Burma.
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