3% Cess into the Cesspool….

P. Chitambaram (PC for brevity), India’s current Finance Minister, has produced among the most uninspiring budgets this year. As a layperson, who isn’t into finance and economics, my readings into the budget are directly correlated to how it impacts me and the news isn’t good. While some pundits are hailing the increase in allocation of funds to core sectors such as education and healthcare, I wonder if PC has, this year, played entirely to the political gallery. In a country that witnesses large number of farmer suicides every year, the budget has alarming skews – decrease in prices of dog food, imported jewellery, diamonds and to cap it all umbrellas! While the allocation to agriculture has increased I see no reasons how the rate of suicides in the farmer community can be controlled. PC has also chosen to increase the education cess (read extra tax) from 2% to 3% to fund secondary education or so he says! A country that is mired in corruption, where of every rupee allocated for the poor only 5 – 10 paisa (100 paisa makes a rupee) trickles down to the beneficiary, PC should have spent the existing 2% well instead to digging into our pockets. The cess is levied on all kinds of taxes (income, wealth, service etc etc) making an all round impact. A very significant amount of the cess is going to land in the cesspool, with precious little being done to bring about real change in the way we implement schemes, while the common man is made to pay thru his nose.

I don’t grouse paying taxes, as every honest citizen should, but then I also have the right to know what the government does with my money. For every rupee that I pay in taxes the government can spend 80 paisa of it in the social sector or wherever it please but the remaining 20 paisa spend should impact me and my immediate surroundings!