Skip to main content

T for Taxes



Maggie and I went out today for some shopping and had lunch out. The government gained a few thousand rupees. We bought some clothes. The taxes were about 6% on average. Even a decent shirt costs over Rs 2000 today. I bought two shirts and a pair of trousers. Maggie bought a sari and a couple of churidars. The bill comes around Rs 20,000. The government gets 6%: that is, Rs 1200. We go for lunch. The bill is about Rs 500. The government gets Rs 60. We buy soaps and other essential items from a hypermarket. The government gets a few hundred rupees. We fill fuel in the car. The government becomes a highway thief. I buy a bottle of Morpheus brandy on the way back since it’s weekend. Cost: Rs 1386. The government gets more than Rs 800 by way of tax on that one single bottle because the tax on liquor in Kerala is 250%. Wow!

I renew my car’s insurance. The government swindles me out of a few thousand rupees on the minimum premium possible. I go to the bank to check my account. The government has already stolen 10% from all my savings automatically. What a fantastic system! Our government knows how to suck blood. Is the government a vampire?

I renew my medical insurance. Developed countries look after the welfare of their senior citizens in many ways and free healthcare is one of those ways. In India, you have not only to pay an enormous premium on your health insurance if you are a senior citizen but also pay a hefty tax to the government just for ensuring your own treatment if required. I pay about Rs5000 as tax on my health insurance annually.

I watch the TV and pay the government an enormous amount for that. I use the internet and pay the government again. I pay the government for everything from the food I eat to the movie I watch. I pay the government even for saving a little money in the bank after paying all these taxes. The government steals even from the food I buy for my cats.

What does the government do for me in return? Other than hate and occasional preaching in the media?

What does the government do with the lakhs of crores it gets by way of taxes? Doesn’t the government have any obligation to tell the citizens what it does with all the money it collects from them? At least that.

I know these are foolish questions. But today, on the 20th day of the AtoZ Challenge, I wanted to be frivolous, talking about money. Thank you for bearing with this. Keep paying your taxes and be a good citizen who never questions anything.

PS. I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z 

Previous Post: Snake Spirituality

 

 

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanApril 23, 2022 at 9:48 PM

    Hari OM
    Far too common a problem this. And history shows that excess tax burdens upon one's "serfs" results either in decimation of that source due to starvation or suicide, or a rebellion by that source - both leading to implosion of one's empire. Or the national economy, if you prefer. It's just a matter of scaling and timing... YAM xx
    T=Thistle

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rajeev MoothedathApril 25, 2022 at 10:20 AM

    Taxes were being collected all the while but suddenly everything has tended to become so obvious on account of the blatant way the Government operates these days- as for example, frequent increase in fuel prices.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2022 at 11:10 AM

      Today's news says that GST on a lot more items is going to be raised, some to 28%. How do they dare to do this? Especially when taxes collected are often more than what the budget had expected!

      Delete
  3. Afshan ShaikApril 25, 2022 at 12:10 PM

    That last punch is right on the face! It's funny how everyone gets diverted to the same old disparities, issues created by Govt and forgets the actual burning issues...like the ones u mentioned...


    Dropping by from a to z "The Pensive"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2022 at 2:20 PM

      The indifference or blind compliance of the people is really rattling. This morning's newspapers tell us that they are going to raise the GST on 143 items. https://indianexpress.com/article/business/commodities/gst-council-for-hiking-rates-of-143-items-asks-states-for-views-7884298/
      And the raise is from 18 to 28%. No one seems bothered. What's happening? Have we all been drugged?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 2

Fort Kochi’s water metro service welcomes you in many languages. Surprisingly, Sanskrit is one of the first. The above photo I took shows only just a few of the many languages which are there on a series of boards. Kochi welcomes everyone. It welcomed the Arabs long before Prophet Muhammad received his divine inspiration and gave the people a single God in the place of the many they worshipped. Those Arabs made their journey to Kerala for trade. There are plenty of Muslims now in Fort Kochi. Trade brought the Chinese too later in the 14 th -15 th centuries. The Chinese fishing nets that welcome you gloriously to Fort Kochi are the lingering signs of the island’s Chinese links. The reason that brought the Portuguese another century later was no different. Then came the Dutch followed by the British. All for trade. It is interesting that when the northern parts of India were overrun by marauders, Kerala was embracing ‘globalisation’ through trades with many countries. Babu...
10 comments
Read more

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 3

Street leading to St Francis Church, Fort Kochi There were Christians in Kerala long before the Brahmins, who came to be known as Namboothiris, landed in the state from North India some time after 6 th century CE. Tradition has it that Thomas, disciple of Jesus, brought Christianity to Kerala in the first century. That is quite possible, given the trade relationships that Kerala had with the Roman Empire in those days. Pliny the Elder, Roman author, chastised in his encyclopaedic work, Natural History (published around 77 CE), the Romans’ greed for pepper from India. He was displeased with his country spending “no less than fifty million sesterces” on a commodity which had no value other than its “certain pungency.” Did Thomas sail on one of the many ships that came to Kerala to purchase “pungency”? Possible.   Even if Thomas did not come, the advent of Christianity in Kerala precedes the arrival of the Namboothiris. The Persians established trade links with Kerala in 4 ...
10 comments
Read more

Schrödinger’s Cat and Carl Sagan’s God

Image by Gemini AI “Suppose a patriotic Indian claims, with the intention of proving the superiority of India, that water boils at 71 degrees Celsius in India, and the listener is a scientist. What will happen?” Grandpa was having his occasional discussion with his Gen Z grandson who was waiting for his admission to IIT Madras, his dream destination. “Scientist, you say?” Gen Z asked. “Hmm.” “Then no quarrel, no fight. There’d be a decent discussion.” Grandpa smiled. If someone makes some similar religious claim, there could be riots. The irony is that religions are meant to bring love among humans but they end up creating rift and fight. Scientists, on the other hand, keep questioning and disproving each other, and they appreciate each other for that. “The scientist might say,” Gen Z continued, “that the claim could be absolutely right on the Kanchenjunga Peak.” Grandpa had expected that answer. He was familiar with this Gen Z’s brain which wasn’t degenerated by Instag...
11 comments
Read more

Florentino’s Many Loves

Florentino Ariza has had 622 serious relationships (combo pack with sex) apart from numerous fleeting liaisons before he is able to embrace the only woman whom he loved with all his heart and soul. And that embrace happens “after a long and troubled love affair” that lasted 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days. Florentino is in his late 70s when he is able to behold, and hold as well, the very body of his beloved Fermina, who is just a few years younger than him. She now stands before him with her wrinkled shoulders, sagged breasts, and flabby skin that is as pale and cold as a frog’s. It is the culmination of a long, very long, wait as far as Florentino is concerned, the end of his passionate quest for his holy grail. “I’ve remained a virgin for you,” he says. All those 622 and more women whose details filled the 25 diaries that he kept writing with meticulous devotion have now vanished into thin air. They mean nothing now that he has reached where he longed to reach all his life. The...
62 comments
Read more