[iraghava]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Big businessmen are never asked about taxes. Poor never pay taxes. Its only the salaried class that is suffering and will do so in future also.

Actually they are much more harried then you can imagine. If the salaried class has only to deal with the IT dept, the businessman has to deal with the Sales Tax Department, Excise Department & the IT dept. Not to mention also deal with the myriad number of Govt. Departments & Inspectors that they have to get approval from every year like the Labour Dept., Fire Dept etc. etc.

Believe me it's a much bigger pain in the *** then you cam imagine.

Originally Posted by Amey

Instead of hitting the honest tax payers, why doesn't the govt. broaden the tax net ?

Two words - Vote Bank.

[rahul_intlad]

I would really not mind paying a little extra if some constructive work was indeed being done,but in most cases these so called cess are nothing but a waste of public money with not even 50% of the collected money used.

[Chandrainsky]

Quote:
They loot us in this country. Highest income taxes too [not the rate but the slabs at which they apply] and we get NOTHING in return. All the money is either piddled away or lines the politicians pockets. Just my rant.
Unquote

Absolutely.

It applies a lot more for the poor motorists from Karnataka who are among the most highly taxed in the country. And in Bangalore petrol costs some 20% more than it does in Delhi. Makes me wonder if we are children of a lesser god . . .

[rocksterraghu]

My friend wanted me to buy a used car from AP and he wanted to transfer it to KK registration. The dealer in Hyderabad (pretty reputed one, don't want to name him) told me that whenever he sold a car to a customer out-of-state, he would get the NOC done and it was upto the customer to get the balance road tax. He said he had every customer calling him back complaining about the refund not being issued. I was shocked and I asked my friend to drop the idea of buying this car.

Even if I don't take his word to be completely true, I'm sure a whole lot of refunds are mismanaged. These alone should run upto lakhs a day in one district/RTO. Who monitors this?

Why don't they centralize the road tax system? If the central Government collects all the road tax at one standard rate (average of road tax in all the states across the country)? Make it more transparent and monitor it better.

If all the road tax went to CG and it allocated the funds for states based on kms of state highways/roads in that particular state, it would bring in transparency.

OT: It would eliminate this sick rule of not having to keep a car bought in one state in another for long durations. Hence, when you pay your road tax, you can keep it wherever you go peacefully and sell it to anyone in the country.

[rocksterraghu]

Originally Posted by iraghava

Actually they are much more harried then you can imagine. If the salaried class has only to deal with the IT dept, the businessman has to deal with the Sales Tax Department, Excise Department & the IT dept. Not to mention also deal with the myriad number of Govt. Departments & Inspectors that they have to get approval from every year like the Labour Dept., Fire Dept etc. etc.

Believe me it's a much bigger pain in the *** then you cam imagine.

I second that. All this, if they do well. Not to forget, the underworld and politicians if they do extremely well.

Look at the flipside, if they don't do well, they need to answer the banks, money lenders etc who threaten them day and night about selling off their assets.

[redsfx]

At this rate I would seriously think I want to move abroad.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by iraghava

Actually they are much more harried then you can imagine. If the salaried class has only to deal with the IT dept, the businessman has to deal with the Sales Tax Department, Excise Department & the IT dept. Not to mention also deal with the myriad number of Govt. Departments & Inspectors that they have to get approval from every year like the Labour Dept., Fire Dept etc. etc.

Believe me it's a much bigger pain in the *** then you cam imagine.

Ishaan, it is a bigger pain in the *** because the businessmen avoid paying heavy taxes unlike the salaried individuals by making use of the loopholes in our system. I havent come across even a single businessmen who pays his/her taxes honestly and I dont blame them, I would have done the same but I dont have any option being a salaried middle class.
Coming to the topic of this thread, more than 50% of my salary goes into taxes, both direct and indirect but when it comes to creating infrastructure the goverment gives all the responsibility to the private sector to build and then gain profits by levying hefty prices like toll from us. Makes me wonder where all the tax payer's money is being spent.
An example is the Noida DND flyway. The toll amount was supposed to come down with time but its started at around 15 Rs and has been increased recently to 20 Rs, because of the fact that they had to spend on the new link road to mayur vihar and where will that inverstment come from... obviously us in the form of higher toll and they are being allowed to do this by the goverment.
Heck till the time leadership is changed in this country and we starting thinking as "we" not "I", I dont think anything will ever change. We are a hollow nation, the politicians are a reflection of the current society, it us who has to change first.
How about floating a team-bhp political party... wishful thinking huh!

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by rocksterraghu

I second that. All this, if they do well. Not to forget, the underworld and politicians if they do extremely well.

Look at the flipside, if they don't do well, they need to answer the banks, money lenders etc who threaten them day and night about selling off their assets.

I can't agree with you more Raghu, the situation is deplorable in our country to do business. Most of the Govt. departments purpose solely seems to be to stifle the business/businessman. All this talk about encouragement to the SME is total Bull crap. They give their best effort to make sure you can't do anything smoothly if you can do anything at all. Just been running after the Assistant Commissioner Sales Tax here for the past 2 weeks to get a small matter resolved & trust me I must have waited atleast 40-50 hours outside his office waiting for the Gentleman to return from their never-ending "Meetings".

Sigh, it's so frustating at times that I feel shutting everything down & moving abroad is a better option.

And, don't even get me started about the banks.

P.S. End of Rant.

[spadival]

We are paying the price for putting a bunch of lunatics into the parliament.. While billions of public money is looted, they are busy discussing Ram sethu and stuff, 123 agreement etc etc

[Rajiv Menon]

With all the TDS, VAT, Excise/Sales, Service Tax, Tolls, Stamp Duty and FBT (plus in Haryana there is VAT on my car lease EMI) I feel that atleast 55-60% of the gross salary goes into tax with everything from my monthly haircut now taxable. With this killer proposal that figure will be pushed higer. Plus this means a higher cost for car and dominoe effect on on-road price and increased insurance also. This means my budgest for my new car has just come down 10%. (Caveat: The figure of 55-60% is just a back of envelope calculation).

I sriously dont think the car manufacturers will allow it. They will use this as a stick to scare people into buying cars right now and keep lobbying with the government and delaying it. And finally after a couple of years the government will pass the rule exempting the critical small car definition they currently have.

[LandCruiser]

Chennai - Bangalore highway toll is about Rs.140 one way and about Rs.200 for both ways! I think it is above reasonable rates. Poor dont pay tax, businessmen dont pay tax. Pitiable salaried people pay tax, pay toll! Govt takes toll! :-)

At least give some privileges to tax payers. Less toll, No road tax etc. Govt is taxing the salaried class because of its inefficiency. Rather building the sethu bridge better they spend the money in improving infrastructure inside the cities. Bah!

And about the finance minister of the country less said the better!

[snaronikar]

@redsfx: My brother has already done this.....moved into middle east where the salary is not taxed (at least). I'am also trying for the same......

[beanstalk_230]

its always been this way here, don't know when will we get the real VALUE FOR MONEY , still we love this country and we really do

P.S. Thank God i brought my car a week back or so.. saving those 8%.. lol

[caliper]

Originally Posted by Amey

Correct me if i am wrong but dont we already pay Toll for the new 4 Lane Highways ?
Where does the Toll money go if they want to levy a Cess to finance the Highway construction ?
Dont we already pay RTO Tax at the time of registration which is quite substantial ? Where does that go ?
We pay Income tax, Service Tax, VAT, FBT and what not....

Hear, hear!

I especially can't figure out why they have this new fad of having a cess for everything. I.e., education cess. Was education not financed before the "education cess"? And if there's money coming into the education cess account, they'll just pay for education with that, and then then find something else to spend the general income receipts on.

[Wheeliej]

'Thugs in khadi' is what they are. They are finding new excuses every day to levy more taxes and cesses on the public. If someone cannot manage with a budget of 100, there is no way they can manage with a budget of 108 whatever they may claim.

On the same item - car - we end up paying VAT, road tax, registration fee, service tax for repairs/regular service, insurance + service tax (I think), not to mention the various VAT/Excise duties that already form part of the basic cost of the car, and now this so-called 'cess'. How much more will they hound the public, I wonder. Its time to change the government now, seriously, it is.

They just have us salaried people (as many of us have said already) as soft targets since we dont have the sheer brute force of the poor or the money force of the rich. Neither of these classes care since one does not own cars now if ever likely to (in any case they can just start an impromptu riot to protest any new imposition if they are affected or declare a transport bundh) and the other has their businesses pay for and maintain their cars while claiming depreciation also.

Us salaried people will just accept it as our fate, beasts of burden that we are, and go on with our lives after paying 99% of our salaries towards various cesses.