Being a tax payer in India

- Vinayak

This is a story written by a frustrated tax payer or india. Yeah! Absolutely. India is a rich country of diversities. It is a "rich" country of "Rich" heritage, "Rich" culture, "Rich" in minerals and ores, "Rich" in population and perhaps "rich" in percentage of employed out of the "worlds population". The paradox is that, india is a biggest democratic country where least amount of care is taken about the tax payee. Yes! its true.

The democratic governments of India has made it a point to provide equal status to all, irrespective of their cast, creed, religion and region. Perhaps, this is the only country in the world where every one is treated the same. Think again! In the story coming up next I will make you tothink again. India has just emerged as one of the most advancing economies of the 21st century. It has heralded as the new leader in the world economy.Out of it's 60 years tenure as a free country {From the grips of british monopoly}, it has developed in many areas like agriculture exports, SOFTWARE exports,Machinery exports, textiles and space etc. Perhaps, the tax payer has been justified in paying his due tax to the government. The punch line for the government so far has been, "Serve the poor and deminish the divide between rich and poor". But, how far it has beenachieved ? thats a mind boggling question. The rich continue to remain as super rich and the poor have been pulled on to roads from their huts.Thats the true story in india. The TV channels, the news papers and the magazines always draw the "Big" picture of this booming indian economy and India, off-course, just to grub the FDIs. Nobody is ready to gulp the truth, nobody is ready to show off whats happening.

The revenue for the government comes from the taxes collected from imports, exports, from the salaries of employees of variousorganizations and from various forms of taxes collected from selling various forms of goods. The biggest pie of this is mainly contributed by the so called"Middle" class families of India. These are the people whose salaries range between 3 Lakhs per annum to 10 Lakhs per annum {This is purely my classification}. These people form the major population of India. Unfortunately, these are the people who fall under the private sector companies. Most of them donot have a post retirement pension schemes also. Every year, the government takes away, 20-30% of their salaries as tax. Government collects road taxes for improvement of roads, it collects taxfor education of children as educational cess, it collects tax for imports and exports so that the same amount is used for building dams, bridges and militaryfunctions. Unfortunately, in India, none of them reaches the "Aam aadmi" {the common middle class man}. The educational cess is being used ineducating a poor children of the country who donot have access to education. But, how far it is fair? The government provides 27% reservation for the Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Casts and Other Backward classes. This is to enable themto have access to the "sweet pie"- Education. This is a wonderful idea that Dr. B R Ambedkar came up 60 years back. How far does it holds good today?Since 60 years of indian independence, people have been using this facility. Atleast 40% of the total Population, who belong to this category, might have atleast got a decent job and would have earned sufficiently, so that they can provide education to their children and live their life. Still.the Indian government extends the low margin entry in to prestigeous institutions of India, without any hastles of struggling and scoring more foracquiring a seat. Where as a General Merit candidate, even after scoring 90 % plus grades in the exams fails to make it big. There is no support from the government for the son of a tax payee for his education. The Education Cess that the government had deducted from his fathers salary,doesn't reach him. He is betrayed of his eternal right that his father had saved from him. Atleast 1% of the amount from his/her parents total paid educational cess would have met his some of the requirements. Give the underprivileged people the school fess, give them clothes, give them food, provide them free transportation. But, reservation is not the solution. The younger talent which will define the future of india is being killed by our own government. The brain drain is increasing. He has been betrayed of his rights. Given such a circumstances, why shouldthe person pay the tax ?
Millions of Indian Rupees is collected as road tax by governments {Central and state}, millions in the form of corporation tax and in the formof other taxes. What is given as free for the tax payee in return to the tax that he has already paid. For every thing he has to pay. There are notenough good amount of roads in the major cities, the drains are not properly maintained they spur out filth now and then, there is not enough electricity,there is not enough drinking water. The roads near to my house not have been asphalted for decades, I suppose. As soon as it is 7.00 PM IST inthe evening, we keep the candles and charge lamps ready for the electricity shutdown. It's a daily gag. Where is the money going ? Is there someone to address ?Given such a circumstances, why should the person pay the tax ?

These so called Netas {Politicians}, the Muncipal corporation employees, the police , the defence and almost all the government officialshave become the money eating demons. They gulp the money released for these public works. 99.99% of them are corrupt. Even with all the proper documents you need to pay the bribe to get a ration card or even a passport. Where is India Heading ? Why should I pay tax ? RatherI'll bribe the people and get my work done. The U.A.E. doesn't take any tax from the citizens, but still they have state of the art roads, state of theart buildings etc. Given the natural resources and human resources that India posses, there is no one in the world who can compete indiafor ecenomica growth. But, still we are "one of the growing ecenomies", why?

When will we "The Indians", will learn to behave like true customers? When will we get back the true value for the money {Tax}that we pay ? Is there some one to address it?