WHERE THE HELL DOES MY TAX GO?
1 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 2:35 PM.
Well, it was only after I ended up paying a huge amount of Income Tax in the last fiscal (2006-2007), I realized it was high time we, the tax-payers in India got a much clearer picture of what exactly our taxes are contributing to.
Some investigation on Google, as well as what I had known previously make me strongly believe that taxes, the increasingly gigantic portion of our hard-earned money get used in these ways. Please help me add to the list below.
True, there are areas for which we HAVE TO pay our due taxes as Indian citizens but there are things we pay for which in no way are our liabilities. Why should we be burdened with those taxes?
I have used bold fonts for the areas we SHOULD NOT BE CHARGED FOR at all. Why the heck should we pay for them?
DEFENCE (Army, navy and Air Force)
1. Training, Recruiting, Maintaining, Paying, Rewarding (in case of achievements) and Compensating (in case of demise or limb-loss)the defense personnel.
2. Buying and manufacturing machineries and weapons, aircrafts and helicopters, ships etc.
3. Maintaining a huge army-base at sensitive areas like LOC, Arunachal etc.
4. Security arrangements for Politicians. More controversial the politician, tighter the security.
SPORTS
1. Ministers visiting foreign countries to take inputs from them and improve the conditions of Infrastructure for sports in India. For example, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi visiting foreign countries to improve Indian Football. Especially whenever there is a World Cup or a Euro Cup, he will definitely be there with his team of legislators to collect 'valuable inputs' from European as well as Latin American Football federations.
2. Frequent foreign-tours by IOC (Indian Olympic Council) members to learn the mystery of doing well in the 'next olympic'. Results : No medal in 1984,1988,1992 ; one bronze medal each in 1996 and 2000; and one silver medal in 2004. Marked improvement, huh?
Education & Technology
1. In spite of the fact that India is doing quite fine in the Information Technology sectors, some 200 Karnataka legislators are planning to visit China to learn a thing or two of IT from them. The minimum estimated cost of their travel would be more than 5 crores. What the heck these politicians know of IT? How the hell are they supposed to understand anything? Not very long ago, the big boss of Indian IT, N.R.Narayanamurthy had publicly told that despite its rapid growth in IT sector, China still is lagging behind India in this field.
2. Grants and financial aid to Government schools and colleges but not . As long as the Indians in general are being benefitted from it, we don't have any issue paying for them but when everything in this country is quota-based, WHY CHARGE GENERAL CATEGORY PEOPLE FOR THE SO CALLED 'UPLIFTMENT' OF SC/ST/OBC-CATEGORY PEOPLE? It's the Government who wants the quota system, not the General-category people. Therefore, the Government only should pay for it, right?
OTHERS
1. Posh bungalows and sleek cars for ministers. WHY SHOULD WE PAY FOR THEM?
2. Five-star-hotel-like treatment of politicians and ministers everywhere, round-the-clock. WHY SHOULD WE PAY FOR THEM?
3. Changing the names of cities every now and then. Bombay to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai, Calcutta to kolkata, Bangalore to Bengaluroo and all cities-in-Karnataka to all-cities-in-Karnataka-luroo. This may sound simple but does come for a high price.
And who else but the tax-payers have to bear that?
4. Unnecessary moral policing. Censorship in movies, media, even internet. Are the Indians in general complaining? Are they demanding censorship? Why does the Government have to be so pro-active in doing these then?
I will keep adding to this list from time to time. I've just highlighted the liabilities we tax-payers could do without.
In my opinion (and I believe it's not 'only' my opinion), we the tax-payers should be given an option to choose where we want to see our hard-earned money go. The Government should let the non-highlighted ones remain compulsory but the tax-payers must have the right to choose which of the highlighted ones they want to pay for, if at all that is.
New points, suggestions and views are most welcome.
Some investigation on Google, as well as what I had known previously make me strongly believe that taxes, the increasingly gigantic portion of our hard-earned money get used in these ways. Please help me add to the list below.
True, there are areas for which we HAVE TO pay our due taxes as Indian citizens but there are things we pay for which in no way are our liabilities. Why should we be burdened with those taxes?
I have used bold fonts for the areas we SHOULD NOT BE CHARGED FOR at all. Why the heck should we pay for them?
DEFENCE (Army, navy and Air Force)
1. Training, Recruiting, Maintaining, Paying, Rewarding (in case of achievements) and Compensating (in case of demise or limb-loss)the defense personnel.
2. Buying and manufacturing machineries and weapons, aircrafts and helicopters, ships etc.
3. Maintaining a huge army-base at sensitive areas like LOC, Arunachal etc.
4. Security arrangements for Politicians. More controversial the politician, tighter the security.
SPORTS
1. Ministers visiting foreign countries to take inputs from them and improve the conditions of Infrastructure for sports in India. For example, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi visiting foreign countries to improve Indian Football. Especially whenever there is a World Cup or a Euro Cup, he will definitely be there with his team of legislators to collect 'valuable inputs' from European as well as Latin American Football federations.
2. Frequent foreign-tours by IOC (Indian Olympic Council) members to learn the mystery of doing well in the 'next olympic'. Results : No medal in 1984,1988,1992 ; one bronze medal each in 1996 and 2000; and one silver medal in 2004. Marked improvement, huh?
Education & Technology
1. In spite of the fact that India is doing quite fine in the Information Technology sectors, some 200 Karnataka legislators are planning to visit China to learn a thing or two of IT from them. The minimum estimated cost of their travel would be more than 5 crores. What the heck these politicians know of IT? How the hell are they supposed to understand anything? Not very long ago, the big boss of Indian IT, N.R.Narayanamurthy had publicly told that despite its rapid growth in IT sector, China still is lagging behind India in this field.
2. Grants and financial aid to Government schools and colleges but not . As long as the Indians in general are being benefitted from it, we don't have any issue paying for them but when everything in this country is quota-based, WHY CHARGE GENERAL CATEGORY PEOPLE FOR THE SO CALLED 'UPLIFTMENT' OF SC/ST/OBC-CATEGORY PEOPLE? It's the Government who wants the quota system, not the General-category people. Therefore, the Government only should pay for it, right?
OTHERS
1. Posh bungalows and sleek cars for ministers. WHY SHOULD WE PAY FOR THEM?
2. Five-star-hotel-like treatment of politicians and ministers everywhere, round-the-clock. WHY SHOULD WE PAY FOR THEM?
3. Changing the names of cities every now and then. Bombay to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai, Calcutta to kolkata, Bangalore to Bengaluroo and all cities-in-Karnataka to all-cities-in-Karnataka-luroo. This may sound simple but does come for a high price.
And who else but the tax-payers have to bear that?
4. Unnecessary moral policing. Censorship in movies, media, even internet. Are the Indians in general complaining? Are they demanding censorship? Why does the Government have to be so pro-active in doing these then?
I will keep adding to this list from time to time. I've just highlighted the liabilities we tax-payers could do without.
In my opinion (and I believe it's not 'only' my opinion), we the tax-payers should be given an option to choose where we want to see our hard-earned money go. The Government should let the non-highlighted ones remain compulsory but the tax-payers must have the right to choose which of the highlighted ones they want to pay for, if at all that is.
New points, suggestions and views are most welcome.
Labels: Bangalore, Fun, Miscellaneous, serious
There is a word in English, unknown to Indian ruling elite.. called accountability. There is absolutely little track of how the money is actually spent. On paper, everything will be hunky dory.. but reality vastly differs from theory. :(
Guess the only set of people happy to pay tax are the rich, who can use myriad ways to evade & reduce tax.. where as we are sitting ducks for the tax man!