An Open Letter to the PM – “ Please give us a New Finance Minister..”

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An Open Letter to the PM – “ Please give us a New Finance Minister..”

Respected Shri Narendra Modi Ji

We are writing this letter with all our appreciation for your honesty, commitment & sincerity for the betterment of the country. We don’t have any doubt on your vision & credibility. But, we have every doubt on the person chosen by you on the topmost chair of the country as a Finance Head. Already enough have been done in mishandling & mis-management of the GST. It could have been handled more efficiently & more carefully. Recently, the TCS is made effective on all sales above Rs. 50 Lakh to a single person which is again an example of poor knowledge of the Finance Minister on the business front. All this is absurd & senseless. The provision like this is “ease of Business” and “simplicity in taxation”. No person of common prudence on this earth could have handled it so badly is done presently.

We, as a taxpayer, are not asking for reduction in taxes but asking for better tax administration. This is the time for you Sir, to understand that our country is blessed with a lot of talented people but not the one who is now occupying the chair as a country head of finance. You have picked up the right person like Jay Shankar ji & various others in your portfolio which surely justify the august office. But just have a look at the Chair of the Country and your aim of 5 Trillion economy? We all the taxpayers want to be the part of your dream project of 5 Trillion economy and also considers it as our duty to point out the hurdles & deficiencies, even if it is a person specific.

We humbly request you to kindly carry out your internal survey as to the performance in the last few months. We would also request you to kindly just have a look at the letter written by Chartered Accountants Association, Surat requesting for a due date extension.

We have been feeling now that, for many, adamancy comes with Power. Any Government, be it Congress or BJP, all are alike when it comes to the tax administration.

Taxpayers are the biggest contributor to the exchequers and the most neglected people of the country. Forget rewarding them, they are penalized for the fault and errors of the Government.

 Mishandling the situation is more than the “Tax terrorism”. Tax Terrorism can be treated as 100 times stronger if it the top bosses ignores the due representation of the premium institutions of the country regarding the problems faced by the taxpayer.

By saying “No” to the tax extension, taxpayers have been insulted like never before. All the taxpayers of the country are feeling helpless in this situation. Of-course, the late fee can be compensated by money but the insult is not compensatory. The Income Tax Department is enjoying extension till 31/3/21 & the taxpayers are not given reasonable time.

One can see how statistics can be used deceptively to the advantage by the Government. The due date comparison of various other countries is absolutely not comparable for various reasons as under:

  1. Other countries year ending is December – 2019 (Except Australia, where year ending in June-2019). The books of accounts must have been finalized by the time there was an outbreak of Covid.  In case of India, there was a  Covid curfew in the last fifteen days of the year
  2. Most of the other countries are advanced and generally they close their books within one month of the year end. India has a large number of SMEs and finalization normally begins only after 31st July due to TDS/GST and other compliances activities.
  3. There has been a stoppage of train services even as on today and many of the accountants of the company  travel by train.
  4. Offices cannot be run full fledged, due to social distancing instructions and safeguards required.
  5. If payers are unable to file their TDS returns, it is not possible to file Tax audit report.
  6. Not filing a tax audit report involves a heavy penalty and hence if sufficient time is not given, CAs will have to file the Tax audit report, risking their degrees.
  7. For FY 2018-19, Government has extended the due date for 8 months & 8 days of lock down (23rd march to 31st march).
  8. The Government has been changing the utility and format in the middle of the year on numerous occasion.

How do we do good for the bad which is already done ? The answer lies in the exercise of pointing out all these issues to the decision makers in the finance ministry right from junior-most to the honorable minister herself. For one negligence, entire nation cannot be put on to ransum. 

We hope that you are reading this and will seriously control the damages already done in the tax system.

With lot of Expectations & Highest Regards to you

We the Taxpayers of the Country

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