Less than a fortnight to go for Goa’s election and the opposition has still not pulled the proverbial rabbit out of their hat, to put the incumbent government on the mat and make a serious run for votes. The writer suggested to the opposition parties to promise just one thing, abolishing personal income tax, but they are still figuring out how that can be done. In fact it is more likely the Prime Minister might announce abolishing of income tax, as early as tomorrow’s budget, if he considers the State elections are important to him and his party, or time the decision for his own re-election in 2024.
Abolishing of income tax is the most logical decision the country should take in order to free the tax payers not only from ‘taxtortion’ of the recently introduced faceless income tax systems, which even the smartest company like Infosys is unable to figure out in designing the software, but also free up capital lying within the parallel economy. Imagine the so-called black cash comes into the official economy freely in a country like India always starved of cash.
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Usually avoid boring the readers with numbers, but here are some compelling numbers. There are around 6.3 crore income tax payers; mostly middle class salaried and only around 8,600 have income of more than 5 crore. The balance, pay miniscule tax and the government practically wastes it’s time chasing these tax payers, which is actually like going after peanuts. If the government find it that hard they may keep the tax for these 8,600 taxpayers above 5 crore, as it becomes more justifiable for the income tax officials to pursue their tax matters and let the rest go free.
At the moment only the salaried fall in the tax bracket while the others have devised a way to avoid it, so why should the burden of tax payment fall only on the salaried. The total revenue percentage collected from personal income tax is about 26%, the government can easily compensate it through other methods especially if tax is collected on expenditure. The advantages of abolishing it completely is not only about numbers but a game changing one, it’s like giving financial freedom to its citizens.
Many arguments can be made for abolishing personal income tax, but that is not the subject of this piece. Coaxing the opposition to promise something this big was to prove their credentials that they are making a serious run for office and not playing a game that is already scripted. Actually for some parties and politicians the script has gone terribly wrong because it did not manage to create commotion, which was their desired goal, and herein is the hope that there is still some sanity prevailing among Goans. But for those Goans who are still confused on how to go about voting these elections, it is important this time to keep a clear mindset on election-day.
The clutter from your mind can be cleared by using the elimination technique. For example you have 5 candidates to choose from, eliminate the guys that have already been given a chance, howsoever they may be good; no individual is bigger than Goa. We are lucky that way, all 40 guys performance was way below par, so Goa is not going to miss them at all. Second elimination should be the ones that have jumped to new parties past one year. These jumping jacks have done so because their own party thinks they are not fit enough to participate in the elections. If any jumped candidate gives you the excuse that their ex-party has changed for the worse, then they should have jumped at least three years before elections. Then there are some who have jumped for monetary gains and the income tax authorities will never find out where the money is stashed, another reason why personal income tax should be abolished.
Then you can safely eliminate the habitual candidates who at every elections try and participate because they have a tiny fan following, little knowing that they split votes inadvertently, of course there are some split personalities that have made it an art to split and make deals with the winning candidate. It is time to put an end to this split phenomena that prevails in Goa because of less number of voters. Then there are some Goans who vote because some Charlie from the ward tells them to do so, or the volunteer that visited their house happens to be their friend. Goans better learn to take your own decisions, there is too much at stake here.
Once you eliminate all the above, your work of choosing the candidate becomes that much simpler, you can then review the candidate personal qualifications, their party manifesto as to what s/he brings to the table for the constituency and not your personal benefit. The circumstances for these elections due to the pandemic have been a blessing to Goans because they are being spared the high decibel blah-blah election speeches Goans were made to endure. Politicians are now forced to walk with folded hands and ask for votes personally and many candidates whose ego might not allow this will automatically be eliminated. Election Commission must keep these election rally ban forever, if they are really interested in making real change and not focus on mere cosmetic ones.
The way the party from Bengal bulldozed their way into Goa the last few months, it has seriously exposed Goan greed and political slavery combined. The fact they stole candidates from other parties only exposes one fact, money can buy anything and anybody in Goa. They did it because we Goans have become slaves to individuals and they figured that out. So here is what should be done by Goans to remedy this situation. Nothing wrong with this party, hope they do well in the future, but only after they put in some real work with real candidates and not retort to buying candidates just before elections. Even one seat win for this party exposes the Goan slave mindset.
(The author is a business consultant)
