With every passing day one gets more and more confused about what the budget actually changed. There has been so much backing and forthing, particularly in the area of textiles, which bring many questions to mind. Do these gentlemen know what they are doing? Do they understand the constraints of the various sectors within the Indian context or do they just follow the international ?book? that tells you what you have to do to the textile sector, for example, if you want ?reforms? to work! Or, do some lobbies work more efficiently than others? What comes across the footlights to the average person is that intellectual chaos is playing havoc with our lives.
Of course the excise department, for one, is smacking its lips with the thought of more and more for themselves when they go to newer pastures to ?collect?. Ambiguous rules assist their endeavour and ?growth?. Nobody in the finance ministry forbids the blatant corruption practiced by its myriad departments. If that were enforced, life would become livable and civilised for most and rules would not be flouted in the manner that they are. In that context, changes and debate on policy would be far more acceptable.
Why, for instance, does the finance ministry not look at rewriting the Income Tax Act, instead of rewriting history books? This Act, with its many addenda, along with the Customs and Excise Acts, create more and more room for interpretations and, therefore, corruption. Surely a rationalisation of these Acts would allow for dignity in business and make the citizens of this country respect the norm.
In a strange way it would generate clean ambition that would trigger a natural rise in entrepreneurship and growth. Why do we always leave the basic malaise unattended? Do we not have the intellectual and creative wherewithal to crack and reform these fundamental problems?
Virtually every finance minister and finance secretary over the last two decades knows what is happening around them. They know that excise, tax and customs personnel extort money with efficient regularity. They are aware of the harassment meted out if bribes are not paid. It happens openly and in the public space. Why then are they silent on these issues? Income tax refund cheques can only be got by paying a bribe to the babu who is empowered to return your legitimate money back to you. Why? It is endless and there seems to be no one willing to bail the citizens out of their trauma.
To do legitimate business in this country is a nightmare but to do it illegitimately is a cakewalk. That is the irony of India and it is also the reason for us being relegated to fourth world nation status. I recall an old aunt telling me to have three children ? one to enter the police force or the IAS, the second to be trained as a lawyer and the third as a chartered accountant. This, she assured me, would make life easy for me living in India. She was not far wrong!
If any one of these men and women who rule our lives want to be even a tiny footnote in history, they will have to destroy the system as it operates today. Do they have no passion? Do they not care a hoot? Do they have no desire to make the corrective and make it with radical determination? Some pretend to tinker with change but none get down to brass tacks. There is always an excuse and some rather vacuous and futile explanation. Small wonder that the public do not care either.
If an honest Indian were to put an official complaint of harassment to the ?authorities?, the poor fellow would be harassed to death by the offending officers. He would have no access to justice and the ?authorities? would not intervene against their officers. This ?victim? would be left to rot. This is the reality of India circa 2003.
Let us hope that as the mercury rises, this dreaded virus that is corroding the innards of India will be killed off. But that, alas, is wishful thinking. Maybe one way of beating the corrupt officer is by claiming you cannot meet because you are inflicted with a competing virus, Sars!