Don’t get me wrong. I’m one of the few people who are thankful for the taxes I pay because it means I’m employed. [break]
As far as I know, people who complain about paying their income tax can be broadly divided into two types: men and women.
Year after year, we turn up the television and brave whatever the elements have to throw at us. But this year, a caretaker government has announced plans so elaborate that it would put the Singaporean government to shame.
And in case anyone was thinking of complaining, we have leaders who will promptly get to their feet despite having exceeded their retirement age at least about a decade ago, and tell us that the inclement period is all due to the transitional phase.
No it isn’t. We’ve had transitional periods right from the time when a gutsy Rana Prime Minister had enough you-know-what to slaughter you-know-who. It’s got nothing to do with transition at all.
And if only our beloved President would care to step out from his motorcade and converse with the common people on the streets who are restricted from going wherever they were headed in order to let his entourage pass, he would know that most of them are sick of excuses.
And this isn’t good news for the Finance Minister who’s trying to sell his budget based on the theory of equitable distribution to parties in the government in the guise of ‘emphasis on infrastructure development’.
He’s probably realized that his predecessor hasn’t saved a single paisa from the times of plenty, and has probably already sold the country’s entire resources to whoever was willing to “invest” on them. So he hit on the brilliant idea of increasing the taxes to pay for his predecessor’s uselessness.
He just needed a “transitional” phase to make it all plausible. God, he must think we’re thick. However, we’ll try to cooperate fully with the government, because, as citizens, we feel a strong patriotic duty not to go to jail.
There has been much speculation, in the run-up to the budget, whether the government would increase the taxes on cars, or property, or income.
In fact, I think at this rate, the Finance Minister’s going for all three.
Later this year, expect petrol to go up by at least another 10 bucks a liter, and then, for that little extra something, it’ll go up by another few bucks shortly thereafter.
What’s more, he’s signaled that he’s in favor of infrastructure development which, in layman’s terms, means road pricing, so that soon you’ll be expected to pay as much as *&!^% for driving on the Kathmandu-Pokhara roads, in addition to the six toll booths that exist on the 200kms stretch of the highway.
That’s not taxation. That’s rape. Mr. Finance Minister, we don’t have billions in debt because you haven’t taxed enough; we have billions in debt because you spend too much. At this rate, the only car everyone would be allowed to buy would be the electric one.
And you probably don’t want one of those, because you’re not a twat. Quite frankly, I only wish that the 601 idiots, including our beloved President, too, stopped spending when they ran out of money.
What audacity to travel with an entourage of fourteen SUVs at a time when the rest of the country is queuing up for five hours for a rationed supply of 15 liters of petrol per car and two liters per motorbike. Unfortunately, these people are like drunken sailors with credit cards with no credit limit.
Plainly, we’re living in idiotic times. Seriously. Basing a system of taxing the people who are already honestly filing their taxes while the shameless criminals in their Range Rovers who rob the country by falsifying VAT refund slips are let go scot-free is fine at the moment, because many people rely on “chow chow” to stay alive and use low-energy light bulbs.
No point in worrying then, because there isn’t a way round the problem, and I can’t help you with petrol prices.
I suspect, however, the oil-producing nations will do that when they wake up one day and wonder why their export is being used to prop up Western and screw the Asian economies.
Nor can I do much about the road pricing, short of designing an electric car myself and distributing it for free.
However, with the wedding season around the corner, the least I can do is to impart useful marital advice to people eagerly looking forward to getting married to a rich someone.
The way taxes are, however, you might as well marry for love.
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