When politicians are hero worshipped by voters, more often than not, it transforms into political slavery and democracy of that particular country takes a hit. There is price to be paid for voter slavery, as politicians feel they can take brazen decisions as per their whims with no obligation to answer voters.
One such decision has been the introduction of interchange fee for UPI payments. Now you might wonder, what has interchange fee, got to do with political hero worshipping.
When voters start idolizing politicians and blindly start justifying each and every decision their masters take, even if it means getting fleeced to the last rupee, then be prepared there are going to be consequences, and in this case most certainly it will be the Generation Next that will have to bear the brunt.
This writer had warned not so long ago, 30th January 2023 to be precise, in this very newspaper that digital tax on our payments is just a matter of time given our extensive use of UPI, which by the way is more used as a fashion statement and less for its convenience. Honestly, did not expect tinkering to start so soon, probably the coffers are running dry and who better to fleece then the gullible voters that are perpetually in awe of their masters. Now there will be counter arguments that this interchange fees is just a pittance, 1.1% to be exact, for transactions made via prepaid instruments such as wallets, strictly on merchant payments and only on transactions that exceeds above Rs 2,000. Oh please, spare us the syntax, don’t fall for these gimmicks, they are just testing the waters, might have softened the blow for now, but this is just the beginning and nothing stops them from charging on each and every transaction in the near future. They just want us to get so dependent on UPI that we forget what cash notes looked like, the knockout punch will follow later.
Taxing is not wrong per se, it is our responsibility to contribute to the country’s infrastructure and finance the government machinery that is supposed to run the show, but to make the citizens pay for their income, expenditure and now even payments is just taking it far too extreme. The government machinery is not getting smaller anytime soon and to finance the elephant they come out with novel ways to tax. Worst, most citizens just accept it as part of life and pay quietly without uttering any word. To be fair, most citizens are fleeced a rupee here a rupee there and therefore are unable to lay hands on a consolidated figure of how much total tax they actually end up paying the government. Citizens paying Income tax might have their lump sum tax figured out, but that’s not the only tax they pay, once they add up the income, expenditure and payments tax, then they probably will get startled with the overwhelming number.
Sporadic noises are being made by some that India’s tax regime is regressive in nature and unfair on the middle class and the salaried, but these noises are still feeble and have not turned into a big roar. Comparisons are being made of how married couple salaries earning similar salaries in India and the USA, turns out that couple in India are paying way more. Also the 30% bracket tax payer pays an income tax of almost four months of the year of their income to the government. Imagine the actual figure if they add up expenditure and payment tax along with income tax, could be easily six months.
Can’t expect every citizen to sit with their calculators and figure out the amount of tax they eventually pay in a year. So here is what the country can do; using Aadhar Card data as the base, it should fetch all taxes an individual pays in a year on his or her income, expenditure and payments and then come out with the consolidated figure. That figure should be able to tell you that your eventual tax outgo is far higher than the tax slab you belong. Now don’t expect the government to take the initiative, but one company involved in designing India’s Income tax department portal can take the responsibility. That would be Infosys, they have already worked with the government to collect taxes, now they can do some service to their countrymen and design an application that tracks and combines all taxes an individual pays and finally give a consolidated figure. Infosys can do this as part of their CSR activity, because enlightening the country’s citizens is one of the greatest service, they will do to the country ever.
Why are these total tax figures important? It will bring in better accountability from politicians in running the country. The problem at the moment is the income tax payers are miniscule in numbers, so even if they recognize that they finance the infrastructure, they prefer to remain in mute mode or at best make feeble noises. The majority who suck up to politicians believe they don’t pay any taxes so whatever is spent by politicians is from their own or the party’s pocket. Imagine an app which sends a sms on first week of April informing the citizen the amount of tax they have paid in the previous financial year. That should automatically ring a bell and suddenly they will feel there is no need to suck up to a politician.
Meantime, Goans and tourists can take some preventive action which can easily turn into a good habit while lowering your tax outflow. Try not to discard cash completely, buy from local vendors who don’t give you a fancy bill that includes so many taxes, avoid fancy restaurants and focus on local ones who have been serving us for years by accepting cash even if that means patronizing street food. Go fetch your food rather than be a couch potato ordering food and end up paying taxes and delivery charges. Life could get hard here, but there is also another option if Goans really want to enjoy the good things in life, learn to frequently change politicians and elect them ideally for only one term. This way, Goans get a chance to set the agenda, even on taxation matters and force politicians to implement it, but for that to happen political slavery will have to take a backseat.
If Goa somehow manages to pull this off, our country will automatically follow.
(The author is a business consultant)
