Beyond Bropleh's Media-Related Tax Collection Ultimatum

SINCE INFORMATION MINISTER Bropleh's pronouncements on particular government policies are invariably contradicted by his bosses, the public is on the watch to hear what the Sirleaf administration would say this time around regarding the minister's ten-day ultimatum to media institutions in the country to pay their taxes or risk immediate closure. In his characteristic verbose fury, Bropleh said recently that had God not intervened--if he did not sleep on his right side last Wednesday or so--many media institutions in the country would have met their offices sealed up. He would have shut down tax-delinquent media. But if his bosses don't come out to say where they stand on the ultimatum; if they fail to contradict the Information Minister's clamoring dispositions which clearly arrogate to him the posts of a tax collector, a magistrate, a constable or a police officer, then Rev. Bropleh in less than ten days time would be all out there at the doors of “tax-delinquent” or “tax-evasive” media institutions wielding padlocks and hammers.

COUNTLESS INCIDENTS SHOW that the Minister speaks before grasping the implication and impact of his speech. And when the later comes, he often comes out voluntarily, sometimes involuntarily, to retract his utterances and issue apologies, or his bosses would do it for him. Therefore, it is necessary for all who feel appalled by the Minister's ultimatum to pause and calm down. Who knows? Probably, a boss of his somewhere is also feeling appalled about the Bropleh aggression against the law and against the Fourth Estate. And before the ten-day ultimatum expires, a contrary decision would evolve and the so-called tax-delinquent media would sigh with relief, not necessarily granted tax exempt, but fully updated on what exactly they owe, and how a reasonable payment arrangement be developed.

YES, THE LIBERIAN media should pay taxes. They should settle their tax obligations. They should not owe taxes. But how does it please Minister Bropleh, let alone Government, if all, most or some media institutions were summarily closed down due to tax delinquency, assuming that they do actually legitimately owe? Is Bropleh or Government interested in the “delinquent” media settling their obligations or only interested in their closure and expiry from the media landscape? It is not true that many, if not most, business houses owe the Government? So, how come the media, or some of them, are singled out for liquidation due to tax delinquency? And more so, how does this particularly appeal to the powers of the Minister of Information, and not his colleagues at Finance and Commerce Ministries? Don't a countless local and foreign businesses owe? Doesn't Government itself owe both domestic and foreign debts and dues? In fact, doesn't the government owe some, if not most, media institutions? Has anyone given the government a notice of expiry and closure?

IF THE SIRLEAF administration actualizes Bropleh's ultimatum and arbitrarily closes media institutions due to incapability to pay taxes, it would further corroborate critics' views about its intolerance and allergy to free speech and free press. Such a move would confirm the long-held skepticism that, in time, the government would shed its sheep-like garment for its real wolfish trait, and the media would be the principal prey. Many hold that impression since the inception of the Sirleaf administration and attribute its peripheral media-freedom and free-speech deportment to two factors: one, that the international community is overwhelmingly present in the country, which psychologically obliges the government to suppress its autocratic instincts; and two, that the government, unlike its predecessors, does not command is own army and security forces who are armed and schooled in partisan and elitist loyalty. Constrained by these two factors, the government strategically has found option in tax collection, inflexible ultimatum and arbitrary closure as a way to getting even with the media, particularly the critical sections considered by the political regime as thorns in the flesh.

THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS that business is hard. It knows that the economy is budding from years of decadence and rot. The government also knows that it inherited an asphyxiating, if not despotic, tax code, which renders even the ace entrepreneurs highly vulnerable to tax culpability. And the government knows that such ruthless tax regime provides an idea smokescreen to reach out with its whips and padlocks to unleash its venoms upon hard-line businesses, including non-conformist media institutions. Since the public does not know which business or media owes, how much owed and how long, the government draws latitude from selective and targeted discretion. There is no doubt about the fact that Information Minister Bropleh's usurpation of tax-collection duty, coupled with his verbal fury and ultimatum, speaks volumes on the intent of government to silence critical voices conduited by the media.

HAD THOSE CONJECTURES not being government's intent; had the government considered the media partner in progress and constructive forces in the consolidation of the country's nascent democracy, it would certainly have thought of other civil, scientific and wholesome actions to media-tax collection. Instead of fielding the Minister of Information to unleash a cowboy closure of “delinquent” media houses, the government would have employed direct, amiable engagements that include, but not limited to, awareness, sensitization, dialogue and even empowerment. The government would have considered the fact that outright closure is neither the solution to tax payment by the media nor it is a healthy revenue collection strategy of government. Not only is a closed down media rendered totally incapable of paying, it also denies government future revenue the media could have paid had it left to operate and be able to pay under some arrangement.

ABSOLUTELY, BROPLEH'S PLAN to close down tax-delinquent media in ten days serves no better purpose besides an attempt to infringe on press freedom and free speech. The government's tax policy having increased prices of essential commodities and hardship in the country, it is now being turned on the media; so that by unleashing its ruthless tax-collection policy, the media would have no option but to increase the cost of services which will negatively impact on both the capability of the Liberian public to benefit from media services and also their right to information and knowledge as provided by the Constitution. Once this intent it achieved, then the government feels relieved from mammoth, penetrating public pressure and x-ray. And then it has the latitude is naturally seeks to remain autocratic and arbitrary. It is to this end that Bropleh assigns himself, or designated to serve, the role of a cannon folder.