[PLUG] [ot] make free - ruin the country.

[Nishit Dave]

On 4/26/07, आदित्य लघाटे <laghatea at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/26/07, Vaibhav Kulkarni <netvaibhav at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 4/26/07, A G <subscrive at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> > > And so if they are not using this service, why should they pay?
> >
> > There may be people who do not use roads at all, why are roads free?
>
> Roads are free?? Don't u pay u t taxes???
>

Part II:

Urban roads are part-financed through road tax collection, but we
could agree that these collections are not enough to cover cost and
maintenance of all roads.  Therefore, these roads are subsidized
through property tax and octroi.  While octroi may be a very debatable
source of municipal revenue, property tax can be very efficient (if
collected efficiently) as it is based on the value of property: the
better location you want to stay / work at, the more you should be
willing to pay, which again percolates to better infrastructure and
thus better property values.  Again, the larger and more expensive
vehicle you drive, the higher road tax you need to pay.

Then, there are the poor and the people who either use the roads by
foot or on bicycles - they do not have to pay any tax.  Does this mean
that you are paying extra so that they get access?  This is not true.
Is your tax money being misused because you live in Maharashtra, which
has little cross-border threat as compared to Punjab, and still have
to bear the same allocation for military budgets?  Should Haryana pay
for the Navy?

We do not live in a meritocracy.  Everybody enjoys at least some
public goods that may be getting paid for by someone else.

Contd..