INDIA
CANDLE MARCH Members of the National Hawkers' Federation (NHF) in India, a member of APMDD, raised their voices to call for tax justice, saying "Make Taxes Work for People".
This Candle March at Ashok Nagar was held on 23 September, 2021, Day Of Action for Tax Justice.
Meanwhile, the Delhi-based Environics Trust issued a statement calling on the government
to restore corporate taxes to a minimum of 30 percent. (See article below)
On this day of action for Tax Justice, we demand that India leads the way to stop this relentless race to the bottom of corporate taxation. In the past few years, we have seen dramatic reduction in corporate taxes with a concurrent increase in indirect taxes, tolls and user fees which burden the poor.
Several other tax incentives, some in the name of ease-of-doing-business and some in the name of Covid have boosted the corporate profits, which is reflected in the soaring stock market indices. This is a time when the unemployment rates are touching the highest levels since independence, fuel prices have sky-rocketed – while global crude prices remain subdued – and health and education burden on the poor is breaking their backs.
In midst of such circumstances, the OECD, G-7 and G-20 are pushing for a minimum global tax of 15 per cent. In our country we have witnessed that any attempt at fixing minimum, ends up being the norm, the greatest example being workers’ wages. Most corporates think that minimum wages prescribed is what is to be paid, so will it be with the taxes.
We categorically reject the idea of 15 percent tax on the corporates. The minimum must be pegged higher, as almost all countries have various incentives which are location or category based. Since markets are perfectly imperfect, the idea of competition reducing prices for the consumer is completely untenable. We are seeing that products which have very little intrinsic value are priced very high and corporate revenues are delinked from such considerations.
Note: The full Statement of Environics Trust is available here: 
Environics Trust Statement PDF
Note: A news article on this Environics Trust statement can be found here: https://www.counterview.net/2021/09/demand-to-restore-minimum-30-tax-on.html
We in APMDD stand in solidarity with the tens of thousands of farmers in India who have been mobilizing for many days now in one of the most massive and dramatic sustained protest actions in Asia in recent years, to fight against elite interests and corporate greed and Modi’s New Agricultural Laws.
We call on the Indian Government:
Repeal the 3 new farm laws. Ensure fair price for farmers' produce. End violence against farmers.
We at APMDD stand in solidarity with the call of farmers and our member-movements in India who have been mobilizing for many days in protest against the central government's three new farm laws.
We, in the Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), are writing to express alarm and grave concern over reports from our members of rampant violations of human rights in Bastar (Chattisgarh).
Malini Subramaniam
Traditional fishworkers in Kollam, under the banner of the Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, staged a dharna in front of the Matsyafed office at Shakthikulangara here on Tuesday morning to press for their demands pertaining to the kerosene issue.
© C Suresh Kumar
