The aim of a free market is to allow for distribution of "effort" into "profitable" segments of the economy since by definition there is higher profit to be earned in any segment with lower competition and less players. There is also a strong motivation for innovation and creation of new segments for free market play. However there are certain markets where free markets do not naturally exist either due to regulatory failure e.g. ISP business in India where the incumbent telecom monopoly not only refuses to un-bundle the last mile but also fails to meet the growing demand for broadband. The waiting time for a broadband is essentially infinite in large parts of the country, so much for the year of broadband. Certain markets are not free because of lack of rule of law in lawless parts of the country. For e.g. certain bus operators in Noida essentially run an illegal monopoly/duopoly to and fro Delhi. Certain businesses like cable TV operations ( ergo before the advent of satellite Dish TV) had been essentially muscle networks with no reason for innovation or good customer service. A lot of businesses in the natural resources sector are government granted monopolies because of the nature of exploration business. Certain businesses like news on radio(community or otherwise) conflict with the interests of entrenched system of government owned communication media organizations like prasar bharati. Certain businesses like education sector hithertho considered as social sectors see advent of private business interests now bypassing the regulatory restrictions by under-handed dealings with vested/well-entrenched political interests. All in all our country needs reform and participation from educated classes. The old weapons of satyagraha and the public space for protests is shrinking. I guess we need a lobbying and media organization to carefully formulate and articulate educated class view on indian politics and governance. Register yourself as a voter today.
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The new income tax code
The Finance Minister says that the salaried class pays the maximum taxes and the honest tax-payer need not worry about any harassment.The new income tax code that will simplify and replace the nearly five decades-old law will be introduced in Parliament in the next four months amidst indications that there may be “finetuning” of taxes but no “radical” changes in them.
Over the weekend, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has been working on drafting the code, which after being tabled in Parliament, will have to go through a process that will take quite some time before it is passed.
Read more: The new income tax code
The article on "the new income tax code" lacks information
So the entrepreneurs and businessmen should continue to bear all the regulatory burdens of mindless TDS laws and their equally mindless implementation.
So what is the proposed new income tax code. I for one would like to see
0. Tax withholding certificates should immediately issuable by enabling better web-facing systems for tax payment instead of the current convoluted (mostly un-available) PDF forms that need to printed and filed offline.
1. A time limit of less than 6 months after a tax return is filed by anyone, extendable for say another 6 months on special request by IT department only incase they can prima facie point out un-taxed income more than 2 lakhs, for scrutiny and after that the tax return should be considered automatically final.
2. The onus on tax-payer for in-efficiency of IT departments asking for information already supplied to them should be gone.
3. Crunchy and crisp written laws with no discretionary powers for power hungry and corrupt/in-efficient and meddlesome bureaucrats, if a person finds a loophole in tax laws and saves taxes according to letter of the law so be it. Its executive arm of government's job to create laws and not hold subjective judgement on their discretionary interpretation. Income Tax department shouldn't have any quasi-judicial powers at all.
4. Scrapping of useless provisions like an Income tax payer needing to preserve records for 15 years. How the f**k is a person supposed to explain a cash deposit into a bank account after 14 years it was made.
5. Personal liability for Income Tax officers exceeding their brief from written laws and summary penalties that are later overturned in court of law.
6. The Indian media is extremely in-sensitive and doesn't treat outrageous claims made by income tax officials with a pinch of salt. In no modern western society for e.g. IRS in US behave in such a way of criminalizing tax payers and calling them guilty before being proven so as in India.
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