An'n'Th - Jan 25 | Miscellaneous thoughts and upcoming budget

Over the past few months there have been few topics, I came across and I am going to talk about them. These topics are related to tax rationalization introduced on few short term and long term in previous July budget, one religious trip I had in Dec, middle class income tax pain and real problem I see, no of work hours, UCC etc.

During Dec holidays, I had gone to Deogarh (One of Lord Shiva Jyotirlinga next to Shaktipeeth) and experience has been exhilarating. I feel it’s good to have some trips in a year besides hills and beaches to religious places that involves some physical rigors and service. The blog image is from Deoghar, where 'Pag' (thread) is connecting Mahadev and Shakiest temples.

Now there is 'Mahakumbh' going on and Congress leaders are primarily silent, no one is going for bath or so. It looks so touchable for them :). Anyway, Kharge says 'It won't feed you. It won't give you money.' 'Dharma' or any religion doesn't promise to feed capable and independent people. Whether you go to 'Mandir', 'Masjid', 'Church' or 'Ganga', 'Triveni'. Anyway, I feel it's worth visiting Mahakumbh, just for experience. Whatever religious practice and beliefs give is 'intangible' which feed your soul to elevate, and if they don’t, then don't hold and practice those beliefs. And these are personal choices.

And that's what UCC is about having uniform civil code where people can practice and have faith in any religion but country growth and development will harness the untapped potential of its people, primarily divided and locked in political and religious groups. UCC would be a great way to familiarize people with its duties and rights which they are not aware of and get in trouble leading the way to court and lawyers. There is no need to pay 'Maulana' or 'Pandits'.

Freebies culture in elections see an upside and election commission or SC or lawmakers should do something about it. They can have some balance keeping the view of re-distribution of wealth and bringing people out of poverty. But all election manifesto should have some kind of screening before making promises.

In Delhi election also 'Kejriwal' seems to make excuses only. Even after getting their party so many times in state, now to MCD, Jal Board all type of excuses he finds. Now he says 'Hariyana' has mixed up poison in Yamuna and he has saved people of Delhi from that poison. He has to submit some proof EC has asked for but his claim and proofs are well known. 'Kejriwal' and AAP is 'Bahanebaaj'!

Last year STT increase and some LTCG rationalization was fine in my view. I believe whether middle class, who has been paying income tax for long and new ones added in the category, feels that before making any mandatory expense why do they need to pay so much income tax. Apart from that they are already paying taxes everywhere in buying product and services, home, education, health hospitals insurance. And if you are in 30% or so bracket then every third month salary is gone. This looks unfair and no one has brought any solution to this problem. All countries are following the same high income tax culture. Where many countries are having obligation of free education and health or so.

Some of the families are having multiple earning members but less expenses and many families having only one earning member and expenses for large no of family members. Some of the middle-class people asks questions about their tax and corporate tax and they see unfairness and highlight it. There are so many slabs and exemptions in tax regime no one knows loopholes and leakage. Somewhere I see news, Trump may abolish income tax and use tariffs. Also, it looks probably budget have been printed out for India for upcoming year. One expectation is to have unified tax regime. For middle class problem I see one possible and agreeable solution to them would be to have tax not on income but on net savings they make in a year comparable to corporate says 25% on net saving. It can be called as personal tax and would be comparable to corporate tax. Primary middle-class expense goes on housing, education and health. From income deduct all these main three expenses (digitally done and settle to educational institute, hospital or bank) and then pay taxes 3-4 slabs like GST. No one would need to make fake companies, fake bills, it will be an incentive to spend and govt will collect taxes on increased expense. Having GST system, it will be easy to have some personal tax system like this. Also, for simplicity if there is no saving means zero tax and no carry over for simplification. This can be tried on pilot basis but this will make tax system more coherent, simplified and more leakage proof.

Also, dark web or dark economy runs because white web and white economy and not addressing people problem or need. DPDP act should address dark web issue if brought in. Any IT system should be audited based on functional use cases, and roles and rights category. Admin privileges and there use and implication need to be audited. Any new IT product should publish a handbook for common users, business users or corporate users (say WhatsApp, Meta or LinkedIn). And these hand books should be reviewed and approved by law committee of land. Because most misuses happen there, not for all but for significant entities - like we have SII related to banks.

Coming to no of work hours, there might have been some context when Mr Murthy and L&T Chairman says and vouch for 70-90 hours a week. My key has been balancing when required and if you are capable do it but not for showing or billing purpose, and how many people are like that I don't know! :) Mr Murthy and Mr Nalkani say don't create LLM model let's west do that and stick to it, isn't it sticking with a third world country mind set and middle-income group country mindset?

Well, and now we see China having DeepSeek using cheaper chips. We need to be on forefront and encourage and dedicate resources and opportunities whether its space, finance, AI, chip, renewable or sustainable!

Thanks for reading!