The Amendment of the Income Tax Order that seeks to tax members of the public’s savings held within the banks, Savings and Cooperatives including Stokvels among others,does not only undermine the principles of taxation but,demonstrates the cruelty of the Tinkhundla undemocratic regime whose political objective is to see all ordinary emaSwati languishing in extreme poverty.
It is not a secret that,in this country taxes are used to sustain the lavish lifestyle of King Mswati including those around him and,with the scarcity of funds in the public administration amid rampant corruption and royal extravagant spending,the regime opted to double tax emaSwati, savings are a product of taxed monies.
Effectiveness and fairness being the basic principles of taxation suggests that,even though taxation should produce the right amount of tax at the right time,double taxation and unintentional non-taxation must be avoided.
But what we are seeing now is not taxation but the manipulation of tax laws to steal money from the pockets of poor citizens.
This is more than double taxation, considering the other proposed law that seeks to tax eStates or properties belonging to those who died owing tax and clearly,this cruel regime has gone mad beyond recovery.
Indeed,this cruel and oppressive regime is not only seeking to tax savings belonging to the poor but,preparing other laws that will empower the State to grab and seize properties from orphans in the event their parents die owing tax.
Worth-noting,the amount of tax owed by the deceased will be determined by the Government through the Eswatini Revenue Service(ERS) and this regime,could just come-up with a shocking figure as the orphans would be ignorant with regards to their deceased parents tax affairs,and subsequently,grab and auction the properties.
In this country most of emaSwati now survive through savings either in stokvels,Savings and Cooperatives or banks amid the struggle of life.
But the Tinkhundla Government is now going for their savings,clearly the removal of this cruel,oppressive and dictatorship regime is long overdue.
A Government employee pays Pay As You Earn(PAYE) that reduces the salary drastically,and in a few minutes when that employee leaves the Automatic Teller Machine(ATM) to Pick and Pay or SPAR to buy groceries,he/she will be taxed again through the Value Added Tax(VAT).
Now,if the employee decides to save a certain amount from the same salary,the amended Income Tax Order suggests that,the saving sourced from the taxed monies will be taxed again.
This means whether you are employed or unemployed,the agenda of this Tinkhundla regime is to ensure that,you are pushed deeper into poverty.
King Mswati is seemingly hell-bent to oppress emaSwati while grabbing everything from their already ‘empty’ pockets.
Public funds in this country are not used to fund social programs,there are no drugs in public hospitals and the education system has collapsed,Free Primary Education(FPE) is funded by the European Union(EU) not Government.
But Government hardly tell the people that social programs including Free Primary Education are funded by the EU because the regime wants emaSwati to believe that Mswati’s Government is working, the King is only looting public funds nothing else.
It is therefore clear that,King Mswati is grabbing money from the pockets of poor emaSwati to sustain his lavish lifestyle.
King Mswati.