tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719829.post114285531774515182..comments2024-03-27T12:04:05.897+00:00Comments on Rick On the Road: The risks of big increases in aid flows to poor countriesRick Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07028422984421301184noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719829.post-1143054995385243182006-03-22T19:16:00.000+00:002006-03-22T19:16:00.000+00:00These are important issues and I find your propose...These are important issues and I find your proposed solution as interesting as it is bold. <BR/><BR/>As you say, tying aid to improved tax collection is not new. I am not an expert but I do know that throughout the history of bilateral aid, improved taxation has often been part of a package of good governance conditions laid down by donor governments. When successful, usually the result is an increase in sales or valued-added taxes, which are paid by all consumers across the board, proportionately hitting lower income earners the hardest. <BR/><BR/>Therefore, I can see potential in your proposal…if the additional revenue will come from direct taxes on wealth. The basic principle would have to be that wealthier individuals and corporations should pay a progressively higher portion (in relative not simply absolute numbers) of their income and profit in taxes than do the poorer segments of society. That, of course, would confront the economic and political elites, and not just the bureaucrats, head-on. <BR/><BR/>I suspect, however, that the singular lack of success of radically progressive tax reform in most countries of the South has to do with resistance from the powers-that-be, who once again would find new ways around yet another external donor condition. And, there is of course the more fundamental question about whether development can be imposed from the outside. I think not. But then I may be a terribly old fashioned social democrat. Frankly, I really do not see an alternative to civil societies demanding tax reform of their duly elected governments, perhaps in partnership with foreign donor governments.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com