Manfredonia. “Tax evasion and surroundings”

TAX EVASION AND SURROUNDINGS.
Thanks to Andrea Pacilli, we are finally also discussing economic-financial issues in our latitudes and this gives me enormous pleasure.
As in all things in life, the angle of view is not always the same (and thank goodness!) and I try to contribute to the discussion with some other data that further broadens the horizon, trying to contain the vision à la Nouriel Roubini ( known in the financial sector as Dr. “Catastrophe”) which very often emerges from Nicola di Bari’s analyzes of our city.
With the data on tax evasion in the city https://www.statoquotidiano.it/…/a-quanto…/1107706/ a world of data opens up that should be studied and explored in a serious manner and at higher levels, especially in this historical moment in which the so-called “Territorial Autonomy” looms which, in fact, is more than consolidated.
Let’s start with a fact: a certain amount of “physiological” escapism is absolutely unavoidable, it is present throughout Europe, even in the countries of Northern Europe which are imagined as a kind of Bengodi in our latitudes, and lies in a range between 8 and 10%.
Now, as stated in the article, the data on tax evasion, money laundering and anti-money laundering in the city amount to 88 million euros which, compared to the overall incomes of the citizens of Siponto amounting to over €532 million, would lead to a percentage equal to 16%, from which the entire part relating to agricultural incomes (almost totally absent from fiscal dynamics) should be deducted.
Taking into account that the entire Italian administrative machine manages to carry out between 60 and 80,000 checks per year, equal to 0.30-0.40% of all tax declarations, what weapons does the municipality of Manfredonia possess to be able to combat this phenomenon and make it fall within the “physiological” range?
In his article, Andrea Pacilli somehow disputes my comparison with “similar” but “non-homogeneous” realities; well, considering that “homogeneous” realities relating to different territories are almost impossible to find, as can be explained, for example, that San Benedetto del Tronto has 7.2 municipal employees (per 100,000 inhabitants), Viareggio 6.5 and Manfredonia just 3, 8?
If we could count on the same percentages as in San Benedetto del Tronto, i.e. 388 employees instead of the 207 at the end of 2022, how much more functionality there would be in the administrative machine in terms of checks on unpaid occupation of public land, TARI evasion, IMU and singing company ? How many more procedures could be processed to speed up the legitimate requests of local businesses? How many more traffic policemen could we have on the streets who would increase controls and physiological sanctions, useful for giving relief to municipal coffers?
Furthermore, wanting to quickly delve into the control of the territory in general, how simple is it to control the 25 sq km of San Benedetto, the 32 sq km of Viareggio and how complicated is it to do it on our 354 sq km? For a territory ten times larger than the two taken into consideration, what should be the number of police forces on staff? I haven’t had time to study these data, but I’m sure that even with regards to the police we are severely understaffed.
There would still be a lot to write but I will focus on one last point; the South is often seen as a large black blob, all the same and indistinct, similarly to the North where everything is efficiency and productivity; so, some data on overall nominal productivity: Puglia represents the 9th Italian region for overall GDP in 2023, approximately €84 billion; more than the acclaimed Trentino Alto Adige (53 billion) which for over 50 years has been showered with public money both as a Special Statute Region and as autonomous Provinces (!!!); more than the harmonious Liguria (54 billion) or the very industrious Marche (45 billion) and Friuli VG (43 billion)
In short, for a land of idlers and tax evaders, the data doesn’t seem so negative to me; and I dare not imagine what our city would be if it were not “abandoned to itself on an inclined plane, within a province abandoned to itself, with no other competitors apart from the Calabrian realities”
To conclude, another of the statistics lessons I learned very quickly is that “much of zero is little; the little of much is much”; if we increased the little of the much we have, then we could really live in Toyland.