Tax Returns

The last week of any financial quarter, especially July, is normally spent filing Income Tax (I-T) returns by many. Filing returns is a statutory requirement by the government, for every salaried and self employed individual. Non compliance is dealt with strict measures. The roots of filing returns originates from the traditional set up, where government got the taxes collected at the end of the year. Such collections happened via manual ledger based systems with individuals required to submit their income sources along with tax exemption savings, if any. Over period of time, with inclusion of technology and better governance measures like PAN, the tax (collection and) reporting system has largely moved to electronic platform. This has not only streamlined the process, but also - more or less - obviated the need of filing returns, at least for salaried employees. That we still have to engage in this fruitless ritual, is a sad story.

In the context of salaried employees, where income is mostly derived from just one source, the redundancy is much more pronounced. The taxes of such employees are deducted at source (TDS) and deposited with the government on quarterly basis. In practise, the deduction and deposit happens on monthly basis. Every individual is mandated to get a PAN. The organisations are mandated to deposit the employee specific taxes, against the corresponding PAN. This facilitates seamless tracking of taxes paid by an individual, on as precise as monthly basis.

The employee gets the salary in a bank account. With wider acceptance of credit and debit cards at most of the merchant establishments, people prefer to keep the money in bank accounts and use the hassle free plastic cards. Online banking, though yet to catch up amongst all strata of bank customers, also helps replace cash transactions to minor extent. This helps in tracking high value transaction with ease, both, for the bank and the I-T department, if required. With PAN as mandatory requirement in opening a bank account, not only such transactions can be filtered but also the transactions involving dividend and interest credit. With banks, exchanges, brokerages and financial institutions all getting on to the electronic platform, codifying such transactions is not much of an problem. Such banks, which are still on manual ledger systems can be asked to upgrade within a stipulated time, by making requisite policy changes. In the meanwhile, the same can be asked to provide reports with special codes against such transactions.

The entire income, under all heads and from all banks can then be collated and arranged according to PAN. Unpaid balance tax liability on an individual, if any, can then be reported via preferred communication channels like postal mail, email or banks. The person can either deposit or claim refund, as applicable. The amount is question can be remitted to the I-T department by any of the bank of taxpayers choice. In case of default - and only then - the I-T department can be authorised to deduct due balance amount from any of taxpayer's bank account having sufficient money. So applies to the I-T department who is notoriously late is giving refunds even when ECS clearing option is specified. There can be concerns about intrusion of privacy with government becoming privy to almost all monetary transactions. Such concerns are mostly voiced by individuals or entities wishing to deliberately hide inappropriate assets. We have, anyway, well witnessed the outcome of lack of transperancy in the recent Wall Street crisis.

The moot point is to avoid wastage of millions of man hours in doing mundane job. A job, that can be efficiently done just be making subtle systemic changes. The same labour can be put to more productive purposes viz. evaluating the exception reports generated for these auto-filed returns, deploying men on foot to achieve better tax compliance and to deal with frauds, in case such a case floats up in exception reports. This, most certainly, is not an exhaustive list. Leveraging technology this way, the government can not only improve the compliance - and consequently collection - over and above its burgeoning tax collections but also reduce a lot of paperwork, avoid hassle to its staff and the citizens, and utilise its resources better. Life is precious. Why waste?

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Tailpiece

Money related affairs are mostly assumed to be rather dry and humourless. Not this IT department office. This one and similar pages were pasted in similar fashion throughout the different rooms of the office, ostensibly, to ease the taxpayers by segregating accoding to their income. The English is but legendary.




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Addendum
Now the ET editorial talks my language.

Rock On

I had first outrightly rejected Master's idea to watch Rock On. This habit of reading - everything that is available to eyes - has it's own side effects. The reviews were all praises. The hype was, as usual, excessive. A story of reunion (observing pattern, that's another habit) was a dampener; same things, different presentation style, essentially a pattern. On the top of it, the music was western. And of all types, rock. All this in one package is way too much to endure. But then, it was a Farhan Akhtar piece.

A masterpiece, rather. The musical flick opens with a high 

decibel song, sure enough a hint of what's more in the offing. The following two and half hours certainly offer a gratifying experience. The story, as already mentioned, is throughly simple and straight forward. College friends live the passion of music with their rock band. The friendship is beyond perfection. A concert. A deserving win. Then suddenly, an ego clash and so ensues the nightmare. Everything falls apart. This, followed by a reunion, through the machinations of a beautiful - but unsure of her husband's happiness - wife. What perks up this rather dull sounding storyline are the performances. A film get much better, devoid of the stars. The characters, all of them, did their respective parts with finesse. While toned bodies and thoughtful contemporary apparels did there bit of magic, it was the sheer excellence in which the emotions - or the apparent lack of it, as demanded by Farhan's character - were expressed. What amazed me personally was the ease with which Farhan faced camera. Being on the other side of camera, and be perceptibly good, does call for an applause. The innocence on Luke Kenny's face and mischievous Purab Kohli were quite natural. And that tranquil Arjun Rampal! The dude has finally got something really working for him. He is one of the best looking talented fella in the tinsel town, though mostly wasted on silly formula flicks. The panache with which he delivers his dialogues and twitches the strings, both, is worth watching. The ladies party was nice. No hyper acting. No needless crying. No melodrama. Plain simple sentences and straight talk. Good!

Though I have a conservative view towards music, mostly favouring Classical and Light, this rock on experience was no bad. In fact, it's quite an injustice to say so. The 'Socha Hai...' and 'Tum Ho To...' were well enough to make me sway my head. And that last performance in the flick was simply fantastic. I discovered myself tapping the boots, big time. Kudos to the Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy trio. Percussion instruments are anyway my favourite. But then, the guitar play evoked pure ecstasy. All the songs were sung from with soul. The rhythm, the beats, the vocals, the composition were all sounded in sync. The lyrics were grotesque, nevertheless. 'Jag Mein Saanp Baste Hai' and all such crap! Master, though, helped me get enlightened by unravelling that this was an archetypal punk rock piece.

The post production work must also get special mention. The editing was immaculate. Such tight and diligent work made the flashbacks and the present scenes blend well. The pace was also good. No dull moment, even when the upcoming situation was expected (darn this pattern recognition habit). The sets, locations and cinematography were class.

The best part of the movie is that it targets the youth and serves good entertainment. No big talk. No hypocrisy. Yet, touching the sensitive issues of human relationships. As in Dil Chahta Hai, Farhan again dwells upon the lives of a group of friends, over a period of time. How each fares in the walk of life. How one adapts or breaks down. How priorities change. How people change. How things change. And even then, how the passion to rock on remains unchanged.

It's magikal. Certainly.