We do not know ourselves that we believe in mirages. Tax is a mirage. When a mirage / an illusion becomes reality, then tax is welfare! Recently I was reading in the press, a prominent news. It was a head line in almost all newspapers across India. There was pride, satisfaction and the greatest sense of achievement in the news. Without realizing the deeper implications, I am sure every Indian felt proud of himself and his country. The news item boasts of GST collections for September 2023. Rs. 1.69 lakh crore were collected for the month. Compared to September 2022, this year’s collections are way higher. The people, the government and the economists are extremely happy about this. They feel that the economy is growing and the tax collections i.e. GST is a solid proof. It also means the governmental development efforts are on the right track.
GST is a mirage. It is an illusory as the social media. It is like watching a Hindi movie and imagining oneself to be a hero. Every human activity is being taxed! That is the saddest part. You are taxed when a soap is bought; when you watch a TV channel; when you eat chicken Biryani at the Paradise, Hyderabad. From birth to death – from cradle to grave the human beings are taxed. The day is not far – we will be taxed for breathing air – pay GST, because we are letting you to live! There is no activity that is beyond the preview of GST!
I see tax as a crude form of exploitation. It is an oppression. It is slavery. It is against freedom. In the olden days people paid taxes because the governments let you to live. There were countless killings when the citizens failed to pay tax to the government. The human history is full of such incidents. The governments of yesteryears were at liberty to do anything the king felt like doing. Because taxes are the Government’s birth right!
In the regime of the so-called welfare governments, the GST is collected with the promises that the money will be used for the public good. Whether any public good was ever carried out, I shall leave it to your judgment. The earlier governments killed their citizens for non-payment of tax; the welfare – governments haunt then to death. Earlier there used to be tax on land; now we have tax on everything. As someone said ‘Life ends with death, but taxes will continue’.
‘Ramayana’ does not talk (anywhere in the entire book) of the people of Ayodhya, their life styles and the tax regime. There is no reference to people or their economic conditions at all! It is said ‘in Ramarajya, people did not lock the doors of their houses’! Excellent! When the people were poor with no houses, how can they have doors to lock? When the Pandavas & Kauravas constructed palaces, new capital cities and waged countless wars- question arises who funded them? This may give a peek into the tax structures of Mahabharata. You may say this is mythology!
Let us take the famed king of India Shivaji – the Maratha king. Look at his taxation system: Chauth & Sardeshmukhi are few taxes among other. CHAUTH – as the name suggests ¼ of the total revenue collected from a defined area. It was an annual tax levied on revenue or produce. SARDESMUKHI – was the additional 10% tax on those lands which the Marathas claimed hereditary rights. This tax was collected by Deshmukhs. You will understand that he had levied taxes indiscriminately to fund his nationalistic & religious wars! Finally, it is an indisputable fact that the British had built huge infrastructure in India. Please compare their taxation with our present GST.
Am I against GST? No. Or Am I against the system of taxation? Absolutely Not. I am not against the system because it is the law. If I am against the law, then might become right. I can be arrested & even hanged. Even if I am 100% stupid I will not talk/write against it. However, I do advocate not to pay GST, wherever possible. It is our money. Our sweat & our blood. We work 24 hours a day not to enrich the governments. We work for ourselves, our families. I wish that everyone should try their best not to pay GST. They must avoid the GST.
When the Mahatma said not to buy foreign cloth, he was not breaking the law. He was advising people to make their own cloth, so that the government cannot become richer by selling the foreign cloth. Similarly when I say not to pay GST, I am not breaking the law. I am only advising people to think of other ways. Let me explain: The ink with which I am writing, if I buy any ink bottle from a shop, I have to pay GST. GST is over & above the price of the ink bottle. Let us say:
- The cost of Chelpark Blue ink = Rs. 50 = 00 (includes all manufacturing expenses + profit)
- GST @ 18% 50*18/100 =Rs. 9/-. So, the Total Cost of Ink Bottle: Rs.59=00
I rather say, please make your own ink. It is damn easy. Sell it @50/- to all those who need it. Since you are going to sell it loose, the cost of an ink bottle will be much less. The quality better. The Government has become Rs. 9/- Poorer. Both the buyer & the seller became richer!
If you go to a restaurant to have a cup of tea, they will charge GST. But if you go to tea vendor under a tree, the tea is cheaper, quality is better, fresh air, helping the tea stall vendor and the government is poorer.
If you buy coconut oil – it is costlier. GST is levied. Recently I made my own coconut oil – extracted from dry coconut. I have few coconut trees at home. I extracted over 5 liters of pure coconut oil. I kept 50% and remaining I sold at much cheaper rate than the Parachute coconut oil. Better quality; all are happy & richer and the government poorer.
It is the people’s mandate that gives power to the government. Let them keep the mandate. Let them serve us. I am only removing money in the form of taxes from the reach of government. Let people keep their money. Let the government serve people with either less money or no money. The classic argument is that the government spends the money for the welfare of the people! Without money/taxes how can welfare activities/development take place? My humblest reply: When people have their money with them, they do not need the welfare schemes. They have security. What is happening presently is that the people give the money to the government and wait forever! They spend their life time waiting for the government to do something! When you separate money & government, then only a true servant wants to be in the government.
No nation consists of Geographical boundaries alone. If it does, then it is a land mass, not nation. A nation consists of its people. A nation is considered developed, strong and rich, only if the people are rich. By not allowing the GST money in the government hands; by saving money with themselves the people are becoming rich; this makes the nation rich. Rich people = Rich Nation.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
