That's an old gimmick that is the cornerstone of totalitarianism; it was already old when Diocletian borrowed the idea from the temple priests of Egypt in 305AD, and made it the new governing idea of the Empire.
It turned the Western Empire, where people still had the impulse for freedom, into a cashless desert, where every coin went into the ground, either into land or into hidden caches. The East became an empire of slaves, and Diocletian's government prepared them for the Turks.
The trick is, the ruler strikes a pose: "I am going to get my impost/labor-levy/crop-share no matter what happens. The only question is, am I going to get it from these guys, or am I going to get it from you, you, and you?"
Knowing who everyone is, and where they live, and how much they have -- in other words, total awareness of the ruled -- is the enabling knowledge, and force the enabling motivator. Turning the victims against one another with the cross-assignment of responsibility guarantees that the whole scheme will work.
I was thinking of something a bit more private. No need to cut the government in on the fun part.