Me and my flatmate were discussing on ways to improve greenery to combat rising pollution levels and hit upon some ideas which looked decent. So, I thought of sharing them here.
Best way to get people to do anything would be to give them some incentive. So, one of the ways we thought might help is giving tax benefit to people for planting trees. For example, let us say they can get income tax exemption of 10,000 for each tree they plant and ALSO maintain it. After 2 years, let us say the tree dies because you have not looked after it, you will have to pay taxes of all the previous years. This will make sure that they will look after the plant till it becomes a tree. Government can provide the seeds/plants to them and even a location to plant. But one problem with this is there will be a huge problem with auditing them. There will be huge paper work and it is practically impossible and not realistic to audit trees planted at individual level.
To overcome this problem, the government can do a couple of things. Instead of giving tax benefit to individual tax payer, they can give tax benefit to companies. This will be much easier to manage both for government and for the company since government will give the plants and the land. There is not much extra effort from government on audit side and the company can not only easily plant and maintain trees very cheaply and get tax benefit, but also show it proudly as a Corporate Social Responsibility activity. If getting such land is difficult, they can just ask them to plant and maintain trees on either side of highways from some km to another km stone. This is a win-win situation as it is easy to audit and also provides some employment opportunity to villages near that highway. I am sure they can come up with numbers such that government need not forego too much tax and companies can both save some tax money and also proudly show it as CSR. Also, as more companies join this program, there will be additional pressure on other companies who might be reluctant if they feel tax benefit is not worth it.
Since, this might not cover much area unless individuals are involved, they can provide a way for individual also to get tax benefit by encouraging some group formation. For example, there can be a company which just does planting and maintenance of tress on highways and "sells" it to individuals. Let me explain. Let us say there is a company where you can go and buy Rs.100 per tree(assuming tax benifit of Rs.10,000 per tree to simplify matters.) Since you get a tax benefit of 1000(assuming you are in 10% bracket which is most common), you have an incentive to buy one tree. Now if 1000 people buy these trees. company raises Rs. 1Lakh which should be enough to pay a gardener to look after, say 1km stretch of highway and still make profit. It will be easy for government also to now audit the tax benifit claimed by the individual. You just submit the form which says you are paying for the plant just like you submit a Life Insurance policy form. Only problem here is, if you say stop paying to the tree maintenance company after 3 years, the plant may die but there is no way government can know this and go back and take away the taxes it exempted from the last 3 years(since you are individual) but I am sure the plant will not now die since the ownership of that plant can just be shifted to some new customer by the company. This way, we can ensure lot of greenery 15 years down the line with minimal effort from all sides.
This can be further tuned like, say if you are ready to do it in some place in city itself or on city roads, you can get more benefit! So, we can make sure cities themselves will have good greenery. Govt can just auction main roads in the city to whoever bids the best in terms of tax benefit they are ready to claim! For example, let us say for highways, benefit is 10,000 per plant. Inside city, the bidding can start at benefit of 20,000 per plant and whoever bids the lowest wins it. The bid can go lesser than 10K also since it is easy for company to maintain roads with-in the city. That way, there is an incentive for company and also govt can get greenery easily.
I am trying to minimize effort from government here since, I am sure any effort I assume from government side will not actually fructify!
How does the idea sound? Do let me know.
Best way to get people to do anything would be to give them some incentive. So, one of the ways we thought might help is giving tax benefit to people for planting trees. For example, let us say they can get income tax exemption of 10,000 for each tree they plant and ALSO maintain it. After 2 years, let us say the tree dies because you have not looked after it, you will have to pay taxes of all the previous years. This will make sure that they will look after the plant till it becomes a tree. Government can provide the seeds/plants to them and even a location to plant. But one problem with this is there will be a huge problem with auditing them. There will be huge paper work and it is practically impossible and not realistic to audit trees planted at individual level.
To overcome this problem, the government can do a couple of things. Instead of giving tax benefit to individual tax payer, they can give tax benefit to companies. This will be much easier to manage both for government and for the company since government will give the plants and the land. There is not much extra effort from government on audit side and the company can not only easily plant and maintain trees very cheaply and get tax benefit, but also show it proudly as a Corporate Social Responsibility activity. If getting such land is difficult, they can just ask them to plant and maintain trees on either side of highways from some km to another km stone. This is a win-win situation as it is easy to audit and also provides some employment opportunity to villages near that highway. I am sure they can come up with numbers such that government need not forego too much tax and companies can both save some tax money and also proudly show it as CSR. Also, as more companies join this program, there will be additional pressure on other companies who might be reluctant if they feel tax benefit is not worth it.
Since, this might not cover much area unless individuals are involved, they can provide a way for individual also to get tax benefit by encouraging some group formation. For example, there can be a company which just does planting and maintenance of tress on highways and "sells" it to individuals. Let me explain. Let us say there is a company where you can go and buy Rs.100 per tree(assuming tax benifit of Rs.10,000 per tree to simplify matters.) Since you get a tax benefit of 1000(assuming you are in 10% bracket which is most common), you have an incentive to buy one tree. Now if 1000 people buy these trees. company raises Rs. 1Lakh which should be enough to pay a gardener to look after, say 1km stretch of highway and still make profit. It will be easy for government also to now audit the tax benifit claimed by the individual. You just submit the form which says you are paying for the plant just like you submit a Life Insurance policy form. Only problem here is, if you say stop paying to the tree maintenance company after 3 years, the plant may die but there is no way government can know this and go back and take away the taxes it exempted from the last 3 years(since you are individual) but I am sure the plant will not now die since the ownership of that plant can just be shifted to some new customer by the company. This way, we can ensure lot of greenery 15 years down the line with minimal effort from all sides.
This can be further tuned like, say if you are ready to do it in some place in city itself or on city roads, you can get more benefit! So, we can make sure cities themselves will have good greenery. Govt can just auction main roads in the city to whoever bids the best in terms of tax benefit they are ready to claim! For example, let us say for highways, benefit is 10,000 per plant. Inside city, the bidding can start at benefit of 20,000 per plant and whoever bids the lowest wins it. The bid can go lesser than 10K also since it is easy for company to maintain roads with-in the city. That way, there is an incentive for company and also govt can get greenery easily.
I am trying to minimize effort from government here since, I am sure any effort I assume from government side will not actually fructify!
How does the idea sound? Do let me know.
