prasad1
Active member
It has been a raucous and noisy time since the announcement of the Union Budget. It is not the content of the Finance Bill, 2016, (the legislation containing tax proposals that is tabled with the Union Budget) that has dominated the noise content.
But the question of whether taxpayer money should be spent in funding institutions that are home to unpopular thought on matters of State has occupied the front pages of newspapers and prime-time television.
A patronising chant from many in the upper middle class, particularly in the financial and corporate sector, goes somewhat like this: the tax paid from my hard-earned income goes to underwrite government support to universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); and if that means giving scholarships to students like Kanhaiya Kumar, who at 28 should be earning his keep instead of depending on government dole, he better not say things that I do not like to hear. If he and his university cannot fall in line, I have every right to demand that government support to the university be cut off.
The amorphous "I am a taxpayer" label can be claimed by just about anyone paying tax, regardless of what effective rate of tax is being paid by him. However, a more in-depth analysis of who is a "beneficiary" of state "dole" would show that that label too can be pasted on just about anyone.
Chapter 6 of the Economic Survey 2015-16 titled "Bounties for the Well-Off" makes for compelling reading. "Subsidies for the poor tends to attract policy attention," says the introduction to the chapter.
"But a number of policies provide benefits to the well-off. We estimate these benefits… making assumptions about the definition of 'well-off' and the nature of neutral policies. We find that together these schemes and policies provide a bounty to the well-off of about Rs 1 lakh crore. We highlight that policies that are based on providing tax incentives will, in India, benefit not the middle class but those at the very top end of the income distribution."
According to the government's Economic Survey, the Indian state's generosity is not restricted to its poorest citizens. "In fact, in many cases, the beneficiaries are disproportionately the well-off."
Some of the commentary is telling: gold is taxed at about 1-1.6 per cent (Centre and states combined), although 80 per cent of the consumption of gold is by the top 20 per cent of the population, while normal goods face a tax of about 26 per cent by the same metric. There is no excise duty on gold while there is 12.5 per cent excise on normal commodities.
States tax aviation turbine fuel, which is used for flying planes and therefore is consumed by the well-off, at an average of 20 per cent. In comparison, diesel and petrol, which are used by a wider range including the poor, are taxed at 55 per cent and 60 per cent. That even after higher taxation, the lower-priced diesel meant for the rural poor is actually abused by the well-off to fuel their vehicle engines is another story altogether.
"There are a fair amount of government interventions that help the relatively better off in society. In many cases, this help takes the form of explicit subsidisation, which is surprisingly substantial in magnitude," the report concludes.
The subsidies provided to the Poor & Middle class people by the Govt is nothing when compared to the lacs of Crores vaived as Tax sop to the Corrupt corporates. The GST is One thru which both the Cong & BJP is trying to Extend more Help to the Corporates manufacturing Units belong to few particular states like Gujarat & Maharastra, because Consuming states will not benifit from GST only manufacturing states will. so there is more Biased attitude is shown by the Central politicians towards the souther parts of the Indians .
http://www.rediff.com/business/spec...ho-benefits-from-government-dole/20160315.htm
But the question of whether taxpayer money should be spent in funding institutions that are home to unpopular thought on matters of State has occupied the front pages of newspapers and prime-time television.
A patronising chant from many in the upper middle class, particularly in the financial and corporate sector, goes somewhat like this: the tax paid from my hard-earned income goes to underwrite government support to universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); and if that means giving scholarships to students like Kanhaiya Kumar, who at 28 should be earning his keep instead of depending on government dole, he better not say things that I do not like to hear. If he and his university cannot fall in line, I have every right to demand that government support to the university be cut off.
The amorphous "I am a taxpayer" label can be claimed by just about anyone paying tax, regardless of what effective rate of tax is being paid by him. However, a more in-depth analysis of who is a "beneficiary" of state "dole" would show that that label too can be pasted on just about anyone.
Chapter 6 of the Economic Survey 2015-16 titled "Bounties for the Well-Off" makes for compelling reading. "Subsidies for the poor tends to attract policy attention," says the introduction to the chapter.
"But a number of policies provide benefits to the well-off. We estimate these benefits… making assumptions about the definition of 'well-off' and the nature of neutral policies. We find that together these schemes and policies provide a bounty to the well-off of about Rs 1 lakh crore. We highlight that policies that are based on providing tax incentives will, in India, benefit not the middle class but those at the very top end of the income distribution."
According to the government's Economic Survey, the Indian state's generosity is not restricted to its poorest citizens. "In fact, in many cases, the beneficiaries are disproportionately the well-off."
Some of the commentary is telling: gold is taxed at about 1-1.6 per cent (Centre and states combined), although 80 per cent of the consumption of gold is by the top 20 per cent of the population, while normal goods face a tax of about 26 per cent by the same metric. There is no excise duty on gold while there is 12.5 per cent excise on normal commodities.
States tax aviation turbine fuel, which is used for flying planes and therefore is consumed by the well-off, at an average of 20 per cent. In comparison, diesel and petrol, which are used by a wider range including the poor, are taxed at 55 per cent and 60 per cent. That even after higher taxation, the lower-priced diesel meant for the rural poor is actually abused by the well-off to fuel their vehicle engines is another story altogether.
"There are a fair amount of government interventions that help the relatively better off in society. In many cases, this help takes the form of explicit subsidisation, which is surprisingly substantial in magnitude," the report concludes.
The subsidies provided to the Poor & Middle class people by the Govt is nothing when compared to the lacs of Crores vaived as Tax sop to the Corrupt corporates. The GST is One thru which both the Cong & BJP is trying to Extend more Help to the Corporates manufacturing Units belong to few particular states like Gujarat & Maharastra, because Consuming states will not benifit from GST only manufacturing states will. so there is more Biased attitude is shown by the Central politicians towards the souther parts of the Indians .
http://www.rediff.com/business/spec...ho-benefits-from-government-dole/20160315.htm
