WHY SHOULD I PAY TAXES?

By CA Deepak Kumar Agarwal

 

Income tax is what crosses our mind when we start earning. We normally plan for our funds and accordingly try to reduce our taxes. However despite all the efforts we cannot escape from taxes. We pay taxes for the development of country as a whole such as infrastructure, rural development, industrial development, social development, security and in many other areas.

But the question that arises is the tax which we are paying for the aforesaid areas above is being actually utilized effectively. The answer to this is not a difficult one.  Taxpayer’s money is not being utilized by both central and state governments for the development of country as a whole. It’s very disheartening to see our very own hard earned income go down the drains.

The money is spent by the government for increasing their vote banks by giving free rice, TVs, mobile phones and so on.  This is a very unfortunate situation of our country. Over the past couple of years we have seen many scams erupt in the country such as the commonwealth games, 2G spectrum scam, INSAT spectrum scam, mining scam and on and on. The list seems never to end. The parliament o disruption leads to chaos and costs the ex chequer. 

Any scheme launched by the government, only 16% of it reaches the ultimate beneficiary. The remaining amount is siphoned off by the bureaucrats and corrupted middlemen. This is a very sad state of affairs in India. India, undoubtedly is one of the most corrupted countries in the world and the taxpayers as well as India as a country suffers it the most.

The income tax department of the country works in a very unusual way. A person who pays very minute amount as tax  is sent a show cause notice as to why an action should not be taken against him for a small error in the total income statement which may not even have an impact on the tax amount. On the other hand we have people like Hasan Ali, Raja, Kalmadi and many others who have managed to siphon off huge amounts of money from India to tax heavens. Despite having sufficient proof against them, no action is taken. This is income tax department.

The government of India is no different. The Government is aware of the illegal mining happening in the states of Goa, Karnataka and other places across the country. However no action is taken by it to protect the interest of the country. 26/11 Terrorist Ajmal Kasab is still alive even after 3 years of the brutal terror attack India has ever seen.  A huge amount is incurred everyday for his protection. Why a person like him should be given security who has taken lives of so many. This is ridiculous as the taxpayer’s money is being spent to protect a terrorist. Remember all the tax payers are contributing a small portion towards his protection.

We have also seen innumerable delays in various projects the government has undertaken in construction of over bridges, railways, highways, other infrastructure projects, loss making PSU such as Air India, oil marketing companies, rising fiscal deficits is leading to escalation in cost thereby increasing the cost to ex chequer.

Despite all the negative on utilization of taxpayers’ money, being citizen of the country we must pay taxes because after all it’s our India, My India.  I want to see India rise to the top very soon. For this we must contribute in our own very way by paying taxes honestly and do things which bring laurels for our country. Undoubtedly corruption, bureaucracy are few of the major factors which lead to misutilisation of our tax money.  In some way we have also contributed to this since we let it happen and did not stop the same.

As Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world”. We must change and pay taxes to see our country reach on the top.  A small change in each one of us can bring about changes in many others. Also paying taxes helps our health since one can have a very good sleep night not worrying at all.  Pay taxes and all is well my friends.