Traffic Jamming

As I was caught in one of the legendary Bangalore traffic jam (This time at the Airport road Junction jam) with the car engine idling away in misplaced faith that the traffic will start to move and at the same time rapidly loosing hope of ever getting out, My thoughts began to drift towards the vehicles around me who also had kept their engines idling either in hope of traffic moving ahead or to keep the car air-con running and began to actually see our foreign currency reserves going up in flames. I then snapped out of this and switched on the FM radio which was blaring away the usual “jam buster” bit and “thanking” the dumb guy who had actually smsed in about the traffic jam he is stuck in instead of giving him the smelling salts- He has still not realised that the same traffic jams happen at exactly the same places and at exactly the same time on exactly the same week days (and at bit different time during week-ends), This lead me to think that why not turn this routine and unavoidable occurrence whose duration can only keep increase into a money spinner? Instead of being stuck in a boring traffic jam and watching the guy in the neighbouring car leading a expedition into his nose as entertainment, People would defiantly pay good money and possibly a premium for something more entertaining like walk-in movies, snacks, beverages, magazines, facial treatments, surf the net etc. which can all be done in the convenience of a traffic jam!

Think of this- The investment to do this will be minimum to moderate depending on the services, Firstly modify the traffic lights poles or the street light posts to accommodate drop down screens which will screen popular movies, surfing the net can be done by setting up hot-spots at potential traffic jam spots, hawkers can sell the access cards, have portable mobile charging units manned by hawkers with tags for identification of one’s phone, mobile facial treatment clinics where you can get a foot massage or pedicure or manicure, hawkers on call serving you whatever food and beverages one might want by means of a cellular hotspot and toll free number set up at potential traffic jam spots, the menu choices and number can flash on your cell phone when you reach the jam area! How convenient don’t you think? If banks start placing ATM’s strategically at traffic jam spots or offer the hawkers portable swiping machines the cash problems to customers can be overcome! A loyalty program or traffic jam membership discounts can ensure that people might actually not consider other routes!

Happy happy, joy joy!

When I was waiting for the previous post to be published, I got a very kooky and unconventional middle path that the Sales “Tax Collection” authorities can prescribe to maintain their ROI’s and yet keep collections good: Issue receipts (Printed at the now defunct but still functioning Telgi press)to the “charges” levied by them to business community on the spot, pay a good portion of the “charges” collected by them into cash collection boxes which will be placed at strategic locations in the tax offices so that the Sales “Tax Collection” authorities can deposit the collected cash discreetly which will be then added to the sales tax collections of the government. This should bring about good increase in sales tax collections. As far as the tax payers are concerned, the receipts issued to them will have to be included in their income tax returns, who will now be able to cross check the cash collections against these issued receipts! Now the beauty is that everyone benefits and people can still be rotten on the inside but have a clear conscience that they have done their bit for their country!

Of course, this is pure fantasy and a far-fetched and ridiculous idea, but what the heck… blogging is fun or what? What do you think?

TaxTricks presents VhatATax!

As the deadline for implementation of VAT (Value Added Tax) draws close, a glance at the morning paper Business section features articles about one state or the other planning to drop out from implementing the dreaded tax. The justification given for this is that there are a lot of complexities involved in implementing the tax, the neighbouring state may not implement it, the states will loose autonomy and tax revenue etc. et. al. At surface level this looks like perfectly reasonable concerns; but if one were to scratch the surface and add facts that one comes across in the same papers, one realises the harsh realities and the extent of rotting in the very fabric of what we call a democratic existence:

After the introduction of service tax (Servicing the Government’s coffers tax!), one has seen that this particular tax has seen dramatic increase in collections and has become the most important and largest source of revenue for the Government. The fact remains that the collection of sales tax has shown stagnant to marginal increase for more than a decade. What is the reason for this? Is it because for some mysterious reason the sales of goods has remained the same or has registered abysmally low increase?

Forget complex economic jargons or justifications (loads of this can be heard on TV emitting from the mouths of the very rarely well educated, English speaking politicians), one can logically deduce that if the service tax collections have been increase at a dramatic pace (Even after negating the constant expansion in the list of service providers and constant increase in the rate of tax from 5% to 10%) then there has to be a average to good increase in sales tax at least on account of the service providers (Forgetting the exploding increase in the population and hence consumers in the same decade) Why is this not happening?

The simple fact is that the segment which is supposed to be in the sales tax paying community in collusion with the sales tax “collection officials” have contributed to the building of possibly the largest parallel economy in the world!

The people who are supposed to be paying the tax don’t want to pay the tax, the tax collection authorities have to bid and pay their political masters for their plump posts and hence have to first recover the investments and then they have to worry about their ROI, they land up aiding the tax evading community, and this cushy and symbiotically existing relation is also being aided and protected by the complex and archaic tax laws and legal loopholes.

Like Neo when in Matrix when he sees the world for the computer generated play it is, one begins to see the rot and corruption: Top to bottom, Bottom to top whichever way you look at it, whichever any plane or angle you look at it from, all you see is ROT! (One can even produce a movie on the Indian tax system on the lines of the Matrix and call it Tax-Tricks!) Similar to the Matrix, out comes a miracle cure for the rot called VAT (Whether it was introduced by Martians from outer space who hypnotised some “tax reforms” officials is still being debated!) which will force the tax-evading community to compulsorily maintain books of sales (They stand to loose input credit if they don’t maintain records) and hence exorcising them into honest sales tax payers and since all these records will be maintained, the other blood sucking leeches called Income tax officials can have a field day with them (More on them in another post!) and since are at least honest sales tax payers (Out of compulsion than choice), they need not pay the sales tax “collection officials”, who now cannot pay their politico masters! Blasphemy! Now what do they do?! Harp about “insurmountable implementation complexities” (Where will we make the moolah now?); create the “chicken and egg” situation by complaining that the neighbours may not be implementing VAT on time, complain about protests from the “business communities” (The Fungi requires the Lichen for symbiosis to survive) etc.

What will ultimately happen will have to be seen as of now, the fear and desperation levels among the Sales Tax “Collection Authorities” has reached such astronomical proportions to salvage whatever can be “Collected” is that today they are even stopping individuals who might be ferrying that hard earned microwave or stereo home from the store to their homes and asking for proof of purchase! So be wary before travelling on your bikes or cars without a proof of purchase for that new CD or tape or something new, lest you get caught by the Sales “Tax Collection” authorities!