On 4th April I went to Pizza Hut and had a blast. I was with some friends and we all ordered some great pizzas. But after we had our stomachs full we were struck by a storm. This storm shattered us beyond our belief. It was the storm of taxes. If I had to put the bill in figures it read something like this:
Spicy Chicken Pizza: Rs. 299
Chicken Supreme : Rs. 328
Total : Rs. 628 (We were sane and happy till now but what came next was like a
nuke on Hiroshima)
Sales Tax @ 12.50% : Rs. 57.94 (KABOOOOM....AAAAGGHHHH)
Grand Total (Round): Rs. 686
This is when I started feeling that all the pizza boys moving about in the outlet had started grinning amongst themselves. This is when I started feeling that a huge boulder was coming down on me with a speed of 64,000 miles an hour. This is when I felt so helpless and hapless at the same time.
"12.50%!!!!" I shrieked.
I had a look around and suddenly found the place covered in blood. All other customers of this pizza outlet who just a few seconds earlier seemed to be having a time of their life lay there crushed and motionless. I saw there a family of three (which included a small kid of not more than 7-8 years old.....why do they need to bring them here when they are so young?) the kid was still laughing and giggling, the mother still caressing the kid with her one eye being on her husband. But it was cries of that man's heart which I could hear out loud. The pain, the agony and the shivers that went through his body were there for all to see but the pizza boys just didnt seem to bother.
This was probably the first time I realized the impact of taxes in our lives. And it wasnt a very good thing too. I guess Ignorance is truly bliss. I wasnt myself for the whole of the remaining evening.
Today as I sit down to jot my thoughts on that big self realization I find myself surrounded by the trap laid down by tax tentacles. This trap seems to be set on every step that we take towards our financial freedom(ha ha... good joke na). Taxes suck our hard earned money from us like a leech. And they start doing that from the start itself .....our salaries. One of my friend (he is my manager too) receives X amount of salary . But his salary in the last quarter was X/2 becoz of the income tax that was deducted. I just wonder how in the world did he manage to survive with that and then I realized he is not married. Good for him but for the folks who have a family to run it just feels like mockery of all the hard work they do to make their ends meet.
Well if the government bites out of what is rightfully ours at the start of this cycle (salaries thats where is all starts right?) why torture us bit by bit at every nook and turn. Sales tax, direct tax, indirect tax, value added tax, service tax, octroi, fringe benefit tax (fancy names too), small term gain tax, long term gain tax, water tax, road tax, proffessional tax, unproffessional tax, air tax, potty tax and what all and what not.Recenly government of Uttarakhand proposed a tax on fresh air that it provides to the nation. (Seriously...aint kidding here)
I mean on top of all this they collect road toll taxes (where the money goes directly to the private companies who built them).
This is nothing but massacre, a means of population control used by government. They supplement this by forming policies where prices of basic essentials have sky rocketed to new highs.
Now for the biggest ironies of all: All agricultural incomes are non-taxable and still farmers of this country are committing suicide. You know why? Coz They dont have any income at all.
Akshay Kumar comes in defence of taxes on TV and says "Pay your taxes and you'll get better infrastructure, medical assistance, civil services, basic ameneties bla bla bla. Yeah right that we have been getting for last 60 years.
But my concern is this: amidst all of this only the working class gets nothing. People below poverty line well they get all the attention and rich businessmen well they dont need anything at all.
Please stop this massacre. Its inhuman, its atrocity and the common man of India (thats me) is burning.
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its true yaar..with the burden of taxes only common man suffers and these bastard politicians dont even think a little bit about our nation......ashish
ReplyDeleteIf they take taxes nothing wrong with that, but atleast show us where it is being utilized. There's a state in US who have created a website where if you put your SSN it tell you where each penny of your tax payment has gone, If that is the case then I am ready to pay all the taxes without making an iota of an excuse.
ReplyDeleteThis is the only reason why I say "INDIA is a POOR Country with RICH people"........Here The Rich Gets Richer and The Poor Gets Poorer. We do have money but we don't know how to manage, if we would have managed till now we wouldn't have been paying taxes at all..........Bharathkumar
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you, and many will say they have experienced this, but kept quiet becaause they feel ashamed to talk about this, Now one more thing Ill add to this mess is the new concept of Service charges!! Its in Hotels of chennai, where they introduced to get away with the TIP culture which is practised, but now people like me are bound to pay Sales tax+ service tax and a decent tip otherwise the bearer snups at you, which is more annoying if you are in a decent circle. I even intervened for this in a respectable restaurant in AnnaNagar Chennai, but no one has a clue for what is the service tax for, But more annoyingly people are not bothered, Its 'Chalta Hai' attitude everywhere, because many dont value money, If its hard earned money then it bothers, is it not?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely correct George. Thanks for your comment. Thats what we are talking about here that the hard earned money of a common man is forced away from him by unjustified ways. America too forces taxes of such kind on its citizens but we all know the difference of quality in public services between America and India. I agree with the inverted tree here that taxes are necessary but we should know as to how is the taxpayer's money getting utilized.
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