Budget Proposal

Dear Mr. Mukherjee
The budget date is closing in and today itself I read in a newspaper that government is busy preparing the budget, which they should be at this time. Preparing a national budget for a country like ours is far more a tough job than I can imagine. You have to have skills of a politician, diplomat, miser, visionary, party men and last but by no way least an economist. There has to be an element of propriety, thought of a king and feeling of a poor. There has to be the lavishness of a lion and cunningness of a jackal. We are fortunate that we have a finance minister of your caliber.
In this some bit of experience I can understand that it’s not only the finance ministry that on its own can make a budget. There are a lot of agencies and people involved in working for that all important briefcase of the year that’s generally opened and read on the last day of February, but this year due to the historic elections, it has been decided to open that magical briefcase in March. There are a lot of agencies, committees and people who are asked to provide valuable inputs and suggestions and also there are some unsolicited advices like this one. As a young citizen of this country, in consultation with my friend Ketan, I propose that the word ‘TAX’ be replaced by term/phrase ‘CONTRIBUTION TO CORRUPTION (CTC)’ in all the tax laws (pardon me, CTC laws). This has a purpose. All of the Indians, right from the former PM of this country to the proposed PM of this country know and accept the fact that if the government sends Re.1 from the center, only 10 odd paisa reach the intended receiver, rest 90 paisa is what we call corruption. So if I pay 25000 bucks as what right now is called as tax, I am contributing 22500 to the rampant corruption. And if I am salaried, my contribution to corruption is fair and square, because my tax is deducted at source (TDS) itself, which can be renamed as CTCDS.
We Indians somehow have this habit of living in denial and we have a long history to prove this. Right from Mahabharata when Duryodhan lived in denial that all the kingdom belongs to him to all the elections in which all the parties live in denial that they are going to win the election which can be very well verified in the current UP elections where there are 3-4 parties whose spokesperson are daily discussing what they will do when they win!
The whole public was confident after India trashed Sri Lanka in Australia by chasing 321 in less than 37 overs that we are through to the finals. The ministry of external affairs always believed (and still does) that Hindi-Chini bhai bhai! The home ministry still lives in denial that problem of Kashmir can be solved by ‘High Level Diplomatic Talks’ and exchanging dossiers! Congress party still lives in denial that but for them every party follows ‘dynasty politics’. Mr. Anna Hazare and his team lives in denial that government will pass their Lokpal Bill (I mean that’s funny now)! Mr. Singh, a famous politician still believes that it was not Hitler but RSS responsible for World War II. MP’s still believe that calling Parliament a place where there are many criminals is hurting the ‘Garima’ of the Parliament!
So there are many (or almost all) social, local, regional, personal, national & international issues for which we Indians live in denial.
Sir, I would propose that you set a precedent of bringing us out of this era of denial and replace the word Tax by CTC. Because this is a fact and we must accept that even if ethically incorrect, this is a fact. In past 65 years, we have not been able to curb corruption, so now is the time we accept it and do that in style. Please have a look at some of the changes that the change will bring:
1. Indian Income Tax Act will be replaced by Indian Income CTC Act.
2. Excise, Custom & Service tax will be renamed Excise, Custom & Service CTC.
3. The demand notice u/s 156 will be titled ‘Demand for Contribution to Corruption u/s 156’.
4. A return for CTC will be filed every year.
5. The income tax refund will be known as Refund of Contribution to Corruption.
6. The search & surveys will be conducted to find out how much a businessman/individual has not contributed to corruption.
Some of the advantages will be:
1. There will be no need for DTC as already tax (CTC) laws will become very easy to understand, even an engineer/MBA will be able to understand them.
2. Payment of bribes will officially be treated as Advance Tax.
3. The government will not have to worry about daily questions raised by people like Mr. Hazare
4. The people will actually know for the first time the correct answer to where their money is being spent.
5. All the money parked outside India will be automatically brought back, as no one will be afraid of keeping black money & if they fall in trouble, they can pay a bribe and use that as advance tax credit!
6. The government will be able to regulate the flow of money.
7. The RBI will understand why the inflation is not coming down despite ever rising interest rates.
8. India will rank among most friendly tax (CTC) nations.
9. The netas will not be called as ‘chor’.
10. Our reputation in the international level will increase as the successors of Raja Harish Chandra.
11. We will be known to be the people who have concurrence of what they do and what they say.
This is just an inclusive list and the advantages are many more.
Therefore it is a serious request that we must stop living in denial that we collect tax and spend the money for development of the country. We as the hard working people, the professionals, the businessman of this country work our day and night so that we can contribute to corruption. In fact we have a better underlying principle; we believe that it is development of an individual/cast that is necessary. And of course, when the individual grows, nation must grow (though debatable)!
Sir, my proposal be accepted (until accepted, I am living in denial that it will be accepted)!

Sigining off..