In April, Sri Lanka’s cash-strapped government suddenly raised taxes on imported cars – from 95% to 120%.
The overnight raise drew this comment from ‘fp’, a reader of Lanka Business Online:
“No warning will be given. An arbitrary state essentially operates by making the lives of citizens uncertain and making it difficult to plan long term.
“No public consultation, no warning nothing. Midnight gazette. You wake up find find out that the state has pulled the rug out from under you.
“Remember you are viewed as an object for taxation by the state. The ruling classes themselves get tax free cars. You are there to pay taxes so that the state can be expanded and you are available to be oppressed.
“In an orderly state taxes are raised in budgets because that give a one year planning horizon for citizens. You can plan import stuff and refrain from importing near the budget in case you do not want to take a risk. That is how free countries operate.
“But Sri Lanka is an arbitrary state where nothing is certain and you are a second class citizen. We have lost these essential freedoms.
“But do not take up arms against the state. The state will kill you with arms bought from the taxes charged from you.”
