Why Is The State Harassing Honesty?

Every single living being in India knows that the income tax department is the most corrupt piece of bureaucracy in this country. We all know that the tax department has been regularly used as a tool by governments to harass those who oppose and dissent. All this has been happening over the years in this democracy where the authority has operated in a dictatorial fashion. Surely, this government that screamed against fascism to win an electoral battle, should know better than to invest more powers in the hands of those bureaucrats who have a track record of harassing citizens. And ironically, honest citizens who pay their taxes. The rest don?t come in contact anyway.

Citizens in this country who pay their taxes, are perpetually harassed by income tax officers of their circle for a bribe in order to clear their yearly returns. That is not all.

A bribe is demanded when you go to get your tax refund cheque. Refund, in common language, means that you have in fact paid the government more than you needed to, therefore the refund. Why then do people have to bribe the officer to receive their legitimate refund cheque?

No one can deny the corruption in this particular department. By allowing those officers further trespass on their whim, will only increase the rate of the bribe.

If this high handed manner is the only way the government thinks it can collect taxes from the citizens of this country, it desperately needs to rethink its strategy ? a strategy that has not worked in the past and one that can never work in the future. A new watertight, sensible method needs to be evolved to collect taxes and by giving a babu the powers of a policeman will only create a terrible retaliation.

Is it not strange that Indians in India cannot withdraw more than Rs 50,000 from their legitimate bank account, all declared monies because it is from an account, without giving an explanation to an income tax officer? This is an intrusion into privacy and is most ludicrous and unfortunate. We are not a police state yet, so why this absurdity? If I am earning legit money, depositing it in my bank account, why on earth should some babu be given an explanation as to why I have withdrawn X or Y. Go for the unaccounted black money gentlemen, and cease the potential harassment of those who have their legit, hard earned money in bank accounts. If I want to withdraw lakhs from my own personal account and throw the notes into the Ganga, no one has the authority to prevent me from doing so. Not in a democracy.

Why is the government encouraging officers to grow their monies by giving them more opport-unities to be on the take? Surely government should be looking at modern, dignified ways of beginning the process of cleansing a chronically corrupt system, known and established to be such. If this UPA government were able to ensure a change in the corrupt practices of the income tax department for a start, they would win the urban vote forever!

Maybe the finance minister should celebrate and congratulate each and every income tax payer who appears on the books, leave them alone, give them a one window complaint cell to report officers asking for bribes, report harassment for paying taxes legitimately, and much more. It is time the income tax department is made accountable to the citizens of this country. This is probably the only country in the world where all the honest fools are harassed and the shrewd crooks are left to do their dhanda. And, all power to punish or forgive rests in the hands of officers in the habit of taking money!

Let us not forget, it was because of absurd regulations and over regulation that our system got corrupted. People were forced to bribe and pass money to get their legit work done. We all have personal examples of this. The UPA government should go forward, not backward on this issue. This government should rationalise the Income Tax Act, the Sales Tax Act and the Excise Act. The time has come to have 30 to 100 page acts without millions of addenda that are incomprehensible and contradictory. They confuse people about what is right and what is wrong. They allow tax officers to misinterpret, misread and harass. This alone has stagnated India, forced Indian entrepreneurship into limbo in its own land, entrepreneurship that has blossomed in every other country of the world. We should be ashamed for treating our citizens in this undignified manner. This is the 21st century, not the middle ages.

The coalition should add-ress the real and exciting challenges that face us and not take the easy options. This is an opportunity to bring into play a new ethos.