Earmarked Tax in Public Sector Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Earmarked Tax in Public Sector - Essay Example For instance, earmarking of taxes for protecting the environment is commonly applied in the US, Europe and other western countries. Furthermore, taxes that are collected from fuel consumption and motor vehicles are allocated for the construction of national and state roadways (Anesi, 2003). Furthermore, concerned with the increasing health related issues, World Health Organisation (WHO) has further increased the global tax rate of cigarettes and other tobacco related products to 10% which will ensure an additional revenue generation of 7%. However, the revenue percentage generated can increase in higher income countries compared to lower income countries. However, the members of WHO stated that despite the steep increase in the taxes charged for cigarettes and tobacco products, people are not discouraged in limiting their addiction levels irrespective of the income status of the country (Prakongsai & et. al., 2008). Part 1: Literature Review According to Brett & Keen (2000), earmarki ng has the possibility of affecting the electoral outcome due to the decisions of the policymakers and representative voters. It has been observed in this regard that the policymakers often tend to use earmarking to motivate the voters’ belief in order to earn considerable amount of votes against the competing party. Hence, it can be suggested that earmarking of taxes should either be fully implemented or abolished, similar to the strategies adopted by the Australian government which assigns the entire amount of gambling taxes towards serving a particular purpose (Brett & Keen, 2000). However, Garrett (2001) argued that earmarking of taxes is effective in changing the behaviour of the citizens in most of the countries causing a deep impact over the socio-economic trend. However, it is worth mentioning that if earmarked taxes are diverted from their projected purposes, it can create certain limitations for the policymakers (Garrett, 2001). Therefore, it can be concluded that e armarked taxes can be effective in changing the behaviour of the citizens towards certain products and practices that tend to affect the health of the people by a large extent. As observed by Mossialos & Dixon (2002), healthcare systems are based on dependable factors that have an access to human, consumable and capital resources. Availing these dependable factors require adequate financial resources for establishment cost, adequately compensating the employees offering healthcare services and incurring expenses for drugs and other consumable medicines. Moreover, these measures are fundamentally adopted by the governmental authorities for generating revenue, and managing them in according to their importance. Since, the costs are increasing gradually and resources are being scarce, policymakers are facing huge challenges in attaining funds. Therefore, it can be suggested that containment of costs and increasing the funding can improve the healthcare services (Mossialos & Dixon, 2002 ). According to the findings of Kanavos (1999), the total expenditure on healthcare sector incurred by the UK consists of personal medical services which include ambulatory care, medical goods and in-patient care.