Education tax
Education tax
AT a recent special meeting of the Madras Municipal Corporation, an important resolution was adopted for levying an education tax to enable the authorities to carry out the scheme of compulsory primary education passed in March last year. There has been considerable delay in carrying out this scheme owing to a paucity of funds. Ever since the scheme of compulsory education was suggested by the late Gopal Krishna Gokhale, financial difficulties have stood in the way of its adoption or, at any rate, have been stated by the executive to be the main obstacle to a reform which all agree is necessary and urgent; and this in spite of the fact that the total revenues of local bodies as well as the local and Central governments have greatly increased during the past 15 years. When at the meeting of the Madras Corporation the question of levying a modest tax was suggested, several members objected to it on the ground that the whole scheme of compulsory education could not be financed in the present condition of local finances. This was not, however, what was proposed. What was proposed was that compulsory education should be introduced, to begin with, in four out of 30 divisions of the city and it would be gradually extended so that the whole city might be brought under it within six or seven years. The education tax, to begin with, would be only 0.25 per cent but would be raised yearly, until it increased to 1.25 per cent. The present financial condition of the city, it was urged, was most favourable for the introduction of the scheme without delay, and it was even recommended by the Finance Committee that there might be a reduction of general taxation to the extent of 1.5 per cent.
