Tax Payer’s Party of India

Original Post from 2018 can be found here

I started writing this post about a decade back. It has stayed in draft since 2006/7.The recent social media and off social media outpouring of anger by Educated MiddleClass Indians(EMIs) on 2018 budget made me revisit the post, make it more contemporary & finish it.

A democracy is for the people , by the people & of the people. Those who elect governments, those who form the governments & those of who sit in the opposition are all people. Many ideologies will want democracy to be us vs them i.e. we the people vs them the politicians. None of these ideologies are there to strengthen the democratic process. Their sole aim is to sabotage democracy. Politicians are a reflection of society they come from, often an exaggerated , “Hastey Chehre” style reflection but still a reflection. The politicians you get are the politicians you deserve.

People in a democracy wear two (atleast) different hats. One is of the voter who decides which politician gets the office & who gets thrown out. Its ultimately the voter that politician tries to please. That is the right thing to do. A politician should appease the voter. YES I SAID IT. This is not a new concept by the way. From the Vedic times “Prajanuranjan” has been sighted as the primary responsibility of a King.

The second hat that we wear is that of a tax payer. We are the people who fund this beautiful dance of democracy. Its us who pays the bills. Tax payers are often a subset of Voters (other than corporations & foreign entities paying taxes in India). In India historically this has been a very small subset. Fact that this subset is small, not organized, fragmented on other lines of identify like religion, caste,political affiliations & ideology often leads to a situation whereby politicians do not put interest of tax payers on priority. This makes the tax payer feel cheated.

One way to react is to keep voting against the incumbent out of anger & frustration. This will never have desired effect as the anger/reaction is not visible or quantifiable. The democratic solution for this is to rally around a new identity, identity not of caste or religion but of a tax payer.

Form an association, a collective which is in a position to clearly articulate what is in interest of tax payers and what isn’t, what is it we expect the government to do. Need of the hour is for such a collective to come into existence.It is about time we demand positive discrimination in favor of people who pay taxes.

This collective’s primary focus should be on furthering the agenda on following broad outline

• Today a non tax payer gets all the benefits and some more as compared to a tax payer.This has to be reversed.Recognize Tax paying citizens as a special class of citizens who deserve incentives, rewards & recognition towards the well being of the society.
• Basic education, healthcare, security & infrastructure as fundamental rights of a tax payer. These fundamental rights are applicable equally to every tax payer unlike RTE which differentiates on lines of religion and income.
• Tax payer’s money should used for long term benefit of the society
• Taxes should be low. i.e. Every effort should be made to reduce taxes without compromising on long term interest
• Taxes should be broad based. i.e. Continuous effort should be made to bring more and more people in the tax net. The tax should be however low but anyone who earns has to pay tax. Not just that anyone who participates in any activity that otherwise will generate economic benefits should be paid and that income should be taxed. E.g. Why not recognize contribution of a housewife , have a notional salary be paid to her & allow husband to deduct this from his income. In this way a large section of society becomes a tax payer & a stake Stakeholder
• Long term aim should be to get rid of all forms of direct taxes and create a sustainable economy based on indirect taxes only. The day this objective is achieved probably will be the day when this party/collective will become irrelevant.

Many of these ideas are nascent probably naive, need to mature , need to be debated. But unless and until tax payers decide to become organized, become a collective & a vote bank who has a very visible agenda things will not change.

Choice is ours. Either we can moan, whine, blame everyone else ..or do something about it.