Dear Santa,

I have always heard from my family, close friends and everyone else around the world that if I wish for something from YOU on Christmas, you will surely grant my wish. Many Christmas eves have passed since I was born and trust me, I have never felt the need to ask for anything except for, back in 2012 when I had my class XII board examinations and I had no clue about what I was going to do but even then, I managed somehow. But, this time I couldn’t help myself from writing to you.

Santa, a lot of things have changed since I was a child and honestly, I am not liking these changes very much. I remember when I was a child, my daddy used to take me and my mom for long rides across the city on his scooter and then on our way back, he used to buy me balloons, ice-cream and cotton candy. And now we have a car, a big car in fact, but there are no rides, anymore. Santa, would you please bring me back those rides? I really wish to spend a little more time with my family, even a little more would do.

Santa, you know, when we were small, my best-friend and I used to play together for hours, sing stupid songs and pretend to be rock-stars and yes, how can I forget those long conversations over the phone on the night right before exams! But now, we rarely talk; we don’t share our problems and secrets anymore but yes, she tags me in random photos and captions it as, “Love you, BFF!”.
Santa, would you please bring me back my best-friend who did not have to say that she loves me because it was so evident from her actions?

My next wish may sound weird but, believe me, it’s as sincere as any other of my wishes. Santa, strangely the first thing anyone does while visiting my home these days is ask for my place’s Wi-Fi password. Santa, please, please, teleport each and every one of us to a Wi-Fi free planet where not even the weakest of Wi-Fi signals would reach us and every one would then, prefer (or be forced to prefer) talking over typing.

I know it’s a pretty long list but Santa, I’ll be really glad if any of my wishes are fulfilled. I thank you for all the gifts that you’ve showered upon me over the years without me even asking for them. Please give my love to Mrs. Claus, the reindeer and the elves.

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

One of the most famous promises of the Modi sarkaar has been the introduction of GST as a substitute for the cumbersome indirect tax structure of India. Just before the year comes to an end, the signs of GST becoming a reality by April 2016 have started to show.

Here’s a brief ‘myth- buster’ about the Goods and Services tax (GST) separating what we’ve heard about this proposed tax policy from what it is actually about.

1.  GST is a complex tax with taxation at various stages. All business houses and tax payers might not understand it well.

Anything that is newly introduced is surrounded by an envelope of ambiguity and resistance to change. However, GST is a simple multi stage tax that replaces the complex Indian indirect tax structure. It is an input tax wherein the amount you pay simply reduces the amount you owe.

Example: ‘Dreamica‘, a biscuit producing company purchases raw material of ?500 lacs (@10%), incures production cost ?50 lacs and adds operating profit of ?100lacs, gross sale price being ?700 lacs( ?500 lacs on procurement + ?50 lacs tax on procurement + ?50 lacs on cost + ?100 lacs of profit )

Total tax payable (Under Traditional Indirect Tax Regime): ?120 lacs( ?50 lacs on procurement + ?70 lacs on sale)

However, total tax payable (Under GST): ?70 lacs (?50 on procurement + ?70 on sale – ?50 input tax credits already paid on procurement).

Thus, GST provides a simple tax structure beneficial to business houses as well, since it reduces tax burden on producers.

2. GST is another indirect tax imposed by government pressurizing the already burdened tax payers.

GST shall be introduced in a two fold structure at centre and state level, sub summing Service Tax, Excise and Custom duty on centre level and Entertainment tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), entry tax, Luxury tax etc on state level. The Central Service Tax shall be totally phased out. Thus, GST doesn’t further pressurize the tax payers, it eases the process and compliance formalities.

3. GST takes money out of the state treasury causing loss of revenues and fills in the treasury of Central Goverment.

The numerous state duties imposed by state governments constitute a significant portion of their revenue. With introduction of GST, it is argued that the state government will lose its revenue to the Centre. However, this isn’t the case as GST broadens the base of tax payers and consequently the tax collections would increase. Further, Centre has promised compensation for 3 years to state governments to make up for any perceived losses. Moreover, the state is entitled to collect GST from producers with turnover between ?25 lacs and ?1.5 crore, and Centre shall collect GST fom producers with turnover beyond 1.5 crores.

Thus, GST nowhere causes loss of revenue to state governments.

4. When input tax credit mechanism already exists in VAT, GST doesn’t really add much to the tax structure and is an unnecessary improvement.

It is true that producers can off set the tax paid on input against the tax on output, however VAT rates differ for each state. At times state governments engage in undercutting rates to attract pool of investors. Moreover, inter state credit isn’t available under VAT. Hence, GST proposes an improvement over VAT with uniform rates and policies.

5. GST is a one stop solution for tax evasion, misappropriation and host of other issues faced in collection of taxes.

GST provides several benefits to the economy. It boosts the revenue collections of the government. It can be used to reduce the sale of undesirable products such as cigarettes, liquor, tobacco etc by increasing the rate. Moreover, the government can regulate the economy by using GST as an instrument of altering fiscal policy. The economy can be well managed by raising GST rates in period of boom, and reducing it in times of economic slowdown.

However,  GST isn’t progressive in nature. It taxes the rich and poor alike. Consequently, the necessities such as housing, food, clothing etc shall become expensive.

 6. GST doesn’t justify its cost as compared to the benefits expected.

It is too early to comment so, however the economic agencies are positive about  GST proving to be beneficial in all spheres. It shall make India into a unified market. According to the Council of Applied Economics Research, GST introduction can boost our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by any percent between 0.9 to 1.7. CRISIL report states GST is the best way to mobilize revenue and reduce fiscal deficit.

Clearly, the benefits from GST exceed the drawbacks it faces. It’ll be interesting to see whether GST is able to deliver what it promises, if it is allowed to do so, or will it fall hostage to the great Indian political system.

Feature Image Credits: www.tacx.in

Mridul Sharma
[email protected]

It’s been two years since the horrific “Delhi bus gang rape case” which sent shivers down our spines. The news of that fatal sexual assault triggered a strong reaction from the public who took to social media, protests and rallies to pressurize the government into punishing the rapists immediately. The case received an unprecedented amount of media coverage and attention. India had witnessed a revolution then; a revolution without a solution.

In spite of all this, one can see that the matters of sexual violence, objectification and harassment being transformed into a ‘culture’ of sorts in India.

What has the country witnessed in these two years?

Two years on, what has India witnessed? There has been an increase of rape cases, 10% of which were reported. The country has witnessed some degrading item numbers in our blockbuster hit movies, which according to the heroines themselves objectify women. Baba Rampal was found having time of his life with women in his holy ‘ashram’. Times of India accused Deepika Padukone for ‘asking for it’ and Gauhar Khan was recently slapped for wearing short and skinny clothes.

Women have found men unzipped in Delhi Metro, who have the brazen courage to touch them in public. Victims have been victimized further after being held responsible for the rapes and rapists have been moving around the city, unfazed.

India has also come across various outlandish causes of rapes, which range from having non vegetarian food and using phones as suggested by some political genius to eating chowmein as pointed out by a Haryana Khap Panchayat leader. Mannequins also have been respectfully blamed for rapes apart from bizarre reasons like school uniforms and astrology.

We witnessed some changed in the law with amendments in Criminal Law Act and reduction of age for a person to be called juvenile from 18 to 16. Many more laws were formed in the country, implementation of which still holds a question mark.

The sickness has no end but there are a few positives too. The Nirbhaya case encouraged women to report more and as a result, there was a significant rise in cases reported for rape. Not recording someone’s case is also subjected to lawful punishment and therefore the police has started recording more.  There has been a major transformation in activities of the media, which keeps a better track of cases of sexual violence against women.

The Uber taxi rape case

After almost two years, Delhi, now better known as the rape-capital, is honoured with another ordeal where a taxi driver employed by Uber raped a female passenger. Uber, a service that only allows government-approved, commercially-licensed drivers is now banned in Delhi, because it did not perform independent driver verification.

Yes, Uber should be penalized because it committed the mistake of relying on our government and its driver approval system. This is a country where anyone can obtain a license with jugaad, contacts and money.

Rapes can happen in auto rickshaws as well, right? Let us wait till one happens and then autos will also be banned. It’s not as if women don’t already face harassment in public means of transport like buses and the Metro.

Gender Fight – Man v/s Woman

A section of women are portraying the society as male dominant society by urging just the men to fight. Why was the recent open letter by Shenaz addressed just to the influential men? Are the women of this country not capable enough to fight for their causes? Why just men?

This also reminds me that our society has very well understood the art of ‘generalizing’. It is not ‘men’ who rape but it’s the rapists. It has been easily summarized that all men are culprits and should be dealt with law and order. The fight should not be with the ‘gender’.

To those who are reading this, how many are aware that men are also raped? Yes, they are. There have been so many cases, which are not brought to light of media. Is this how we choose to live?

Is it also about the revenge? In the recent case of Rothak Sisters, further evidence casts suspicion on who the actual perpetrator was. The country also has women who misuse the powers given by the government. Since every complaint by a woman is considered valid, sometimes this leads to abuse of these laws for the sake of revenge for personal matters. Though the number of such cases is very low, it cannot be ignored.

What have we learnt and what should we learn?

The recent trends show that our lessons include writing an ‘open letter’ and then receiving 20 responses to the same. With Shenaz Treasurywala writing an open letter to Narendra Modi, Khans, Amitabh Bachhan and Ambani and Sachin Tendulkar, nobody even knows if these ‘influential’ people read them. One is busy promoting DDLJ and the other is shouting at Karishma Tanna in Big Boss. Organizing rallies and candle light marches is often followed more to gain fame than to fight the cause.

We have learnt the art of blaming just our law and government.  I feel that these matters are much beyond the matters of just law and order. We need to understand that policemen can’t be deployed in each and every street across India to protect women.

We are devoid of the best solutions when we sit to jot them down. India needs to have specialised cells and specialized officers that handle and investigate such crimes. There has to be timely intervention in cases of rape. We also need to look the reasons that fuel such crimes. Yes, as the world demands there should be a death penalty for the offenders but there should be cells that study the offender and the hidden reasons for the crime to prevent crime in the future. We need to understand that is rape just about sex? There also has to be proper coordination between government agencies to maintain proper records of the past criminals to ensure verification of criminals.