From this instruction,
it is clear that Imam Ali (A.S.) wanted that the welfare of taxpayers should be
a dominant reason of tax policy.
In several other
letters/instructions issued to the governors, this consistency in the approach
of Imam Ali (A.S.) is noticed.
The above-mentioned
stand of Imam Ali (A.S.) is still more explicit in the following instruction.
He writes:
“More importance should
be attached to the fertility of land than to the collection of taxes because actual
taxable capacity of people rests upon the fertility of the land. The ruler who
does not pay attention to the prosperity of his subjects and fertility of land
but concentrates only the collection of revenue, lays waste the land, (he)
ruins the state and brings destruction to creatures of God. His rule cannot
last for long”.
The above instruction of
Imam Ali (A.S.) should be held as the golden maxim of taxation wherein
importance is attached to the tax base and its attributes and not to the tax
rate and amount of revenue to be collected.
This essentially is the
message of modern period fiscal experts. Now, across the world, tax reforms
movements on one-hand and tax administrators on the other, have realized that,
in the matters of revenue collection, tax base is more important and not the
tax rate.
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