Planning dispels fears: Questions for the census or for tax disclosure?

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[size=52]Planning dispels fears: Questions for the census or for tax disclosure?[/size]

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10/10/2024
The teacher (A.A.), who refused to give his real name, is one of the enumerators delegated by the Ministry of Planning from the Ministry of Education to conduct the population census scheduled for next November. However, despite his knowledge of the details of the process, he doubted some of the questions on the census form.[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry of Planning trained more than 100,000 teachers during the summer vacation, who will carry out counting tasks during the general population and housing census in Iraq.[/size]
[size=45](A.A.) said during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed” that “some of the questions in the census are questionable to the citizen, as he does not know why he is being asked about phones, cars, or private property, and determining the location of the house on GBS, while the census is supposed to include counting individuals and families and knowing the population growth.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, "There is a crisis of trust between the citizen and the government, so it is difficult for most families to reveal their real assets and properties, for fear of the government's desire to impose taxes."[/size]
[size=45]There was widespread controversy over the questions included in the census form, as bloggers on Facebook circulated this form with great sarcasm. Abdul Khader Ne’meh wrote that “the census questions should include knowing the number of educated people and unemployed graduates in the family, and the number of children who left school due to its high costs.”[/size]
[size=45]He points out that “the form counts properties, washing machines, and all household appliances, even telephones and internet service. This will not be a population census in the eyes of the citizen, but rather a tax statement par excellence.”[/size]
[size=45]According to the Ministry of Planning, the census form includes 70 questions, covering 11 diverse axes related to the characteristics of an individual’s life within the sectors of “health, education, work, housing, and services,” with the aim of obtaining accurate information about the number of families and residents in each home to know the educational level of each citizen, as well as identifying the diseases that families suffer from.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, commented, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed”, that the census form does not initially include any question about income, whether for the individual or the family, but the census of durable goods has nothing to do with taxes or any other procedures, and it is not mandatory either.”[/size]
[size=45]“We will take samples from the community and ask them about these goods, meaning that not all families are included in this question,” Abdul Zahra added, noting that “this census aims to measure the level of well-being and the level of poverty rate in the country and provide an image of the size of the existing devices and goods, and based on that we can develop a vision and future import policy, and through it we can know how to determine the size of the electrical energy required for the population according to the annual growth rates and other details related to other economic and developmental aspects.”[/size]
[size=45]The planning spokesman insists that “this census is far from those perceptions, as its goal is not to impose taxes, but rather to examine the reality in order to draw up strategic policies and solve the problems that this reality faces.”[/size]
[size=45]The National Advisor for the General Population Census, Mahdi Al-Alaq, confirmed last May that the question about nationality would be cancelled in the general census form, noting that “all the procedures that were achieved in 2010 were completely halted after the insistence on raising issues related to nationality and disputed regions,” according to what was reported by the official newspaper.[/size]
[size=45]In addition, crisis management expert Ali Jabbar confirmed, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed”, that “the process of conducting a population census for a country like Iraq after an absence of more than 27 years is a relatively new process and concept at the level of state and society’s performance and how to deal with it.”[/size]
[size=45]Jabbar adds, “The statistical process in all countries is comprehensive of many terms and statistics, starting with the number of people and their types, whether male or female, the social nature and standard of living, and many numbers and statistical analyses that follow this type of statistic, which includes outputs about the level of education, the health situation, the size of families, and changes in the societal environment, including the provision of public services to individuals, how to distribute them, and setting appropriate financial allocations for them.”[/size]
[size=45]He finds that “after 27 years in which the census was completely absent, it has become clear that there is a lack of culture in confronting it, so the Ministry of Planning needs to make an intensive effort to educate society about this census and the objectives desired from it.”[/size]
[size=45]The crisis management expert believes that “the fear that citizens have about imposing taxes is misplaced. The state is going to impose taxes, but at other levels, the census process will not be one of them,” adding that “in a country like Iraq, societal fear is justified due to the lack of trust in the executive institution.”[/size]
[size=45]He stresses that “the pattern and behaviour of statistics has changed internationally in a very significant way. Statistics in most countries of the world are electronic and include a lot of accurate and even personal information and data for individuals, because they produce a lot of statistical analyses that any executive government needs.”[/size]
[size=45]Jabbar adds that “the Iraqi state, within the chaos of administration in the past years, does not leave the impression that a major change will occur after this census, as important as it is, as the Iraqi state does not rely on statistics, international readings, and sound economic reports in its work.”[/size]
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