An Exercise in Excise
02 Jun 2007 Leave a Comment
in Absurdity, Current Affairs, India, Law, legal issues, Politics, Thoughts Tags: Excise Duty, Excise Laws, India, Taxes
When I speak here, I speak as a layman and not as a member of the legal profession. I find it amusing that a State should tax manufacture. That’s what excise is all about.
I make goods – say shoes for instance. I am expected to shell out a percentage of the costs of making the shoes to the Government! Why should I do that? I already pay a percentage of my profits (income tax); I also pay for the same when sold (sales tax), why should I pay for manufacture?
For a society that wishes to promote the greatest good of the greatest number through increasing availability of goods and services – the State is not really helping to achieve that end. I find it absurd that while one gets income tax deductions etc. to help save profits for productive concerns – how is taxing the activity of manufacture of any use? Yes, it does add to the coffers of the Government– but at what cost?
I understand that it helps make exports more competitive, but why do we have to still have such high rates of excise – 16%. To this absurd philosophy of the State, all I can say is that excise should be phased out and no manufacturing unit should be taxed for being productive. But that is never going to happen.
GROUND LEVEL ZERO
22 May 2007 1 Comment
in Current Affairs, Education, India, philosophy, Thoughts Tags: Education, Marx, Mumbai University
Someone said to me that The Mumbai University is a great ‘leveller’. I did not think about it much then. Yesterday, over a cup of coffee, a friend suddenly said – “You know people think too much of themselves these days, it’s not that they are really good at anything in particular, but they just seem to have an air about themselves and it’s becoming impossible to communicate with them!”
So I said, may be it is lack of humility. He agreed.
I started thinking about it and could not help laughing about it. Marx would have been happiest today. He probably never imagined the effects of over capitalism or shall we say ‘over-corporatisation’ is congruous to his intended effect of equality for all, through socialism. Let me explain.
Starting from school, the best student would only be slightly higher than the mediocre ones, ‘coz the system is designed to help the dullest brains pass (no offence meant to anyone – neither the smartie nor the not so smart). Colleges, through their system of essay type examination also do the same. The guy who puts in 11 hours a day scores 10% more than the guy who maybe puts in 5. Now one may argue that maybe the guy who puts in 11 hrs is slow and dull, unlike the guy who puts in 5, who may grasp more in less time. The truth is always quite far from this assumption. The guy who is passionate to care about what he reads and tries to study in the best possible manner can never beat the guy who is not as smart but understands exactly what is needed. Maybe that’s why my friend talked about the University being a great leveller.
If one progressed beyond college to the job scenario – then again one would see a lot of levelling. The smartest guy chooses the best place for him which pays much less than a call centre (BPO/LPO) where probably only average skills are required. Therefore, to answer my friend’s question of why there is no humility left, it’s because of everything I have stated hereinabove. So people have begun to think that they are capable of earning as much as the smartest, most intelligent brain in class and therefore no deference of any kind is owed to anybody. Today in the age where everyone denounces materialism, is ironically the age of consumerism. Respect for goodness or greatness is also to be paid on materialist bases. Marx would be very happy to know that humanity is all at Ground Level Zero. One can only hope that life is not a great leveller.
OBC
06 Apr 2007 Leave a Comment
in Current Affairs, India, Politics, Reservation
What is this incessant need to analyse and class people into several kinds of classifications. We apparently have some 3900 odd OBC in India. 3900! Why cant you solve problems unit wise? Why not make the classification purely geographical and eradicate poverty in every village by addressing issues relevant to those areas alone. What is this excessive obsessive need to classify people and put them in psuedo boundaries which have no relevance in real life. Is it not odd? Where did this start? More importantly, where will all this end. I think its time to close one’s eyes to facts that are on the face of it – baseless and immaterial.
The solution is simple – to take each issue and try to reach a logical conclusion. But are we today that simplistic. Lets take a complexity check in future. Let’s tell ourselves that we will only adopt those solutions and take those steps that are logical and simple. Can we rationalise simply.
