In the 2007 budget, again in my limited knowledge, nothing has been done to address the first issue and very little towards the second. Nothing incites me to continue to pay my taxes and no encouragement is there for more people to start paying taxes starting this year. In terms of a
llocation, he has increased spending towards education and farming but from what I've read looks like there are many other obvious areas in which a growing country like ours should have increased spending but have been ignored.And coming to inflation, this just bums me out. The FM has been caught napping. Despite a drop in oil prices inflation continues to increase in the country. And our eccentric FM is refusing to move and is just sitting and waiting for a good monsoon to solve the problem for him. Well a good monsoon solves almost all problems in our country. Any kid knows that but my expectation as a citizen of this country is that you get off your fat ass and do something about this rising inflation starting now!
Here is my cousin's post:
In a post last April, real estate bubble, had indicated actual inflation is not what the government is reporting. The finance minister and his boss, the PM, are doing whatever it takes to hold on to their chair. It seems, they need another mandate from the IMF and world bank to continue reforms. As a citizen we would love to pay our taxes, if we are convinced the money is put to the right use. When you visit any of our government offices, can you ever believe they spend our money right. They do no work, accept bribes which adds to our overall tax bill, bad role models for our next generation. Whom will they emulate when they pay bribes to get their temporary driver’s license and one more to make it permanent.
One of the real drivers of inflation is the cost of real estate, however this did not get mention anywhere. Real Estate prices will get tamed only if there is more legal straight forward supply and tightening of interest rates. It will make Indian services and manufacturing more efficient. In education, 2 lakh more teachers will be appointed, who will never come to work, however they will press the button alongside the Hand symbol, many times, during the next general elections. Chidambaram has proven to be slimy and a pervert one more time. Its time we get these fossils out and replace with new blood.
3 comments:
Puts,
I agree with most of what you have said except the inflation bit. Inflation is a necessary evil that always accompanies quick growth - look at China. Also, they have been raising the interest rates at a quick pace. There's not much else they can do right now, except just keep raising it further.
Sid
Yes, you guys are correct, interest rate hike is the right corrective measure for inflation. Reserve Bank is on top of that and that's a good thing.
But double taxation just kills you man...it harms the honest salaried guy who pays upfront at source. No relief there...
And who is 'Puts'??? ;-)
What do we do? Don't say 'vote' coz that doesn't seem to help.No matter who's in power, only a fraction of what we expect our reps to do gets done. Some potholes get covered, some improvements are seen in public transport and so on. I doubt if completing all of this is even there on someone's roadmap/thought process and things to do...! There is no accountability at the end of the year..no comparision of objectives vs results...and no direct correlation of work done and remuneration. Given all this, is it surprising that I don't ask for a bill when I am buying a toothpaste from the kirana shop? With all the money they deduct from my paycheck, they don't seem to do much...nothing motivates me to ensure that the tax proceeds from the sale of the tootpaste gets to them.
anyway, we can't blame the FM for all that. He could have done better...but then, I am sure there is more to it than what is visible to us. It will require nothing short of a miracle to get the other 96% in India to pay up! He is part of a messed up system. All we can do is keep hoping some messiah comes and turns India arnd...like Kapil did '83 world cup when we had lost all hope and were struggling at 17/5. Sigh...I hope India turns around in our lifetime!
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