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NSCN (I-M) admits collecting 'tax'

G Vinayak in Guwahati

The banned National Socialist Council of Nagalim, led by Isak Chisi Swu and Th Muivah, has for the first time admitted collecting money from business establishments, wealthy individuals and even government officials.

Speaking to newsmen at Dimapur, a senior NSCN (I-M) office bearer and convenor of the ceasefire monitoring cell, Phunting Shimrang said, "We collect nominal taxes from individuals as well as business establishments based in Naga-inhabited areas as a contribution towards the Naga cause."

Shimrang's open admission has also thrown light on the NSCN strategy for the first time.

The tax collection, according to Shimrang is not confined to the territorial limits of Nagaland alone. The collection goes on in Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh too.

The NSCN (I-M) which has a self-styled 'Government of People's Republic of Nagalim', has neatly divided the tax collection system.

According to Shimrang, while the armed wing of the GPRN, the Naga army, collects Rs 100 per individual per annum as 'ration tax', the GPRN itself levies 24 percent of an individual's annual income as royalty tax and Rs 10 as house tax.

Shimrang's admission confirms the Union home ministry's perception that insurgency in the northeast has become a 'cottage industry'.

Over the years, the dozen-odd prominent insurgent groups in the northeast have perfected the process of extortion into a fine art.

In fact, the huge amount of money collected by these groups' forms the backbone of their existence.

The funds enable them to finance the visits of their leaders abroad, purchase sophisticated arms and communication equipment and run the organisation.

Of course, most of them term the process as 'tax collection'.

Take for instance the way the two factions of the all-powerful National Socialist Council of Nagalim function.

With the jurisdiction of the two factions clearly defined, the rate of payment by various categories of people is fixed in advance. A prominent leader of the NSCN (Khaplang faction) had told rediff.com last year that the outfit collects 25 percent of annual salary from gazetted officers, 15 per cent from non-gazetted officials, and 10 per cent from grade III employees.

Government contractors have to pay in the region of Rs 200,000 to 300,000 annually, while small businessmen have to cough up money to the tune of Rs 50,000 to 100,000 per year.

The system is so well defined that 'tax' notices, very much on the lines of the ones issued by the income tax department go out every year and receipts are issued once the payments are made.

In neighbouring Manipur too, such a system exists.

Although in other insurgency-hit states like Assam, and Tripura tax collection is not as clearly structured, extortion is a big business.

Militants in Assam routinely collect ransom from tea companies located in their area of operation.

Kidnapping is therefore rampant. In the beginning of the 1990s when insurgency in Assam was at its peak, 4,083 people were kidnapped by various militant groups between 1991 and 1995.

Executives of tea companies, private firms and central government undertakings besides prominent businessmen were the main targets.

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