Foolishness or Honesty

I got my first pay-slip. The amount was not enough. It was less than what I was told.
I went through the pay-slip again. Its true. It was not my mistake. It was less than I expected.I started analysing it and found the major culprit. It was something called
income tax. I was wondering that I have to work hard, almost 12 hours a day and then
I have to pay tax to the government. I was irritated. Why is it like this? If government
wanted money, let them also work hard, why taking my hard earned money? ;P.

It was pretty childish. Anyone who is reading this would have thought the same.
It has been more than 5 years since I am working. But I know the thought was not silly.I feel I was right.

I asked myself about this. What good this money does? First answer was, it is this
tax money that is given as salary to government employees. When I got this answer,
I felt my previous thought was a big mistake. My father was a government employee.
His salary was just Rs. 3000. I had to depend on bank loan for my studies. I thought
if government had more money, govt officials like my father would have
got a better salary and their families would have had a better living. But
even now, the government servants gets a similar salary. Nothing has
changed.

Next answer that I found was govt uses it to give us better roads and better medical facilities.
That was something great. Roads determine how well a place develops. It was a great thing
that was happening with tax. So I happily drove my car, for which I have already given enough
road tax(don't know why separate tax again) on our roads. Result: My car is now in service
center because of suspension issues which arose because of gutters and pot holes in the great
roads. I would be paying a very good bill which has enough Value added tax in that. So, further
money to government. I felt the tax system is like a money chain. I give road tax and income
tax. Govt make very bad roads with that so that they get value added taxes for bills that
we have to give for our vehicle service. By the way, I missed out a strange thing here. While
I was driving, I found some good roads. I was happy but suddenly someone stopped me and started asking money. For using that road, my tax money is not enough. TOLL. This is what they called. So, again its from my pocket. I was wondering if robbery has become public.

I wanted to stop thinking about tax after my car condition. But as I mentioned, govt starts hospitals where there are free service to patients. At least something good is happening with my
money. I was relieved. But alas. What is this? I control taking news paper in my hand.
I can't read the news. I can't accept anything happening in this world. But it was really
boring day and I took the newspaper. Good news was that a lady gave birth to a boy on
the road. At least future Indian generation is lucky enough to see the roads made by
taxpayers during birth itself. Now, the lady and new born got such an opportunity
because they were thrown out of govt hospital. My frustration was increasing.
I had to console myself. I had to find where my tax money was going.

I know how much my father was getting. I know how good the roads are. Now I know
how well the medical facilities are also. So where is all the money going. I was looking for
answers. Thought a lot. But I couldn't find an answer. Suddenly, my eyes went to the
newspaper again. I was seeing certain amounts of money. I tried to find the number
of zeroes in that. I was not able to get it soon.. It was 1000 crore. To be more clear on
number of zeroes, it would be Rs.100000000000. Why this big amount is there in news
paper? It was just one scam, CWG scam. Some game happening in India were there
was a corruption of this much amount. It gave me an answer where our tax money is
going. Our corrupt politicians are making a life with it. Checked for another news. It was
also a similar amount. Some 2G scam. Another hefty amount in crores. I cannot write
all those crores in this. India is full of scams. Something that we taxpayers should be
proud of. It was very clear to me where my tax money was going.

And us, poor software engineers are considered to be the richest in the world. Might be
because we are paying a lot of tax. Now coming back to the title. Are we really fools
to give our hard earned money to these corrupt politicians. They are very clever.
They take our money, and they even escape tax also. As I mentioned already, if
govt needs money, it should earn it. If I am giving my hard earned money, I need
to know where it is spend. It shouldn't be that I sit and read newspaper and learn
that Mr. Suresh Kalmadi has made a fixed deposit of average 1 cr Indians money
in his name. Its not for him that we are working. Some simple statistics are given
below. Interested people can read.

I have an emi of 25 K for my house. Every month, I lose this. I also give a tax of
8 K every month. If I don't waste this money on corrupt politicians, at least
I can finish of my loans a bit early. And, if I lose my job, govt is not going to give
back the tax amount that I gave for the last 5 years. I myself will have to take care.
So, its really foolishness doing this tax payment for no reason. It cannot be
called honesty. It can be just called foolishness.

After one day of thought again, I have got one more idea regarding the tax payment.
Instead of calling it as income tax, there can be another option. It can be termed as
Suresh Kalmadi corruption fund or Raja Corruption fund. It has two advantages.
We are not ignorant about where our tax money is going. Second advantage is we need
not go behind that again for filing returns at the end of the year as there would be
no returns. There is one more advantage which I had thought but I was not sure
if it would be same in India. If we don't pay income tax, its a criminal offense. But
if it is for funds like this, I hope Indian govt will not make it a criminal case if we
don't pay it ;-).