India is just screwed. It is in this insane democratic autocratic hybrid where you don't get much freedoms but every government has to have a short term focus to win the next election and thus igniting caste/religion/other inflammatory issues.
Social media has caused this mass delusion where Indian problems can not even be discussed openly without being labelled a foreign agent or something worse. If you stop talking about the problems they don't just disappear.
For westerners, one quick thing you need to understand is that in India the written laws and constitution are totally irrelevant for day to day life, so the written law providing 100 freedoms is irrelevant. Anyone who has power can mostly do whatever they want to a large extent (offcourse there are limits basis how powerful they are). Just like in America it is said that the poor think of themselves as temporarily poor and rich someday, in India most people dream of gaining power and that sweet corruption money someday. People spend 5-10 years doing nothing but studying to get one of those sweet government jobs where bribes are universal and easily >5x your income.
Like in India everyone knows where black money is, well except the Government it seems. If the government had any interest in fixing tax avoidance they had many easy ways, but the Government is mostly interested in power.
It's pretty much going to move people to self-custodied crypto, whether to stablecoins or privacycoins or otherwise. Couple this with actual encrypted communications apps, well beyond WhatsApp, also encrypted containers. Let them search all they want.
Disclaimer: I strongly and truly believe that everyone should pay a reasonable percentage of tax on their entire income.
I m sort of glad to see these overreaches happening. It's natural punishment for the carelessness with which people lived and shared their lives in global audience 24/7 for what is ultimately selfish and narcissist reasons. It's an insane society we live in, and nature self-corrects.
I don't agree with the bill, but I empathize with the motivation.
Infamously in the US, the IRS knows all. In India, the IRS runs blind. Here, tax evasion is the norm with only 2.2% of the population paying income tax.
> expanded scope of powers given to tax officials during search and seizure
For context, income tax raids are common in India. Officials tear down walls and ceilings to find hidden cash, jewels and other undeclared assets. Forcing their way into your phones is a digital equivalent. From a legal perspective, I don't see why digital spaces are anymore private than one's own house.
Yes, it limits freedoms. But, no more than than was the norm in a pre-internet India.
hmm, this Economist article from earlier this month shows just how bad things are in India:
https://archive.is/bttaV
The last thing india needs is more bureaucracy and regulations and restrictions on personal freedoms (not to mention a free press which they've plummeted since the current PM's party took control).
> Infamously in the US, the IRS knows all. In India, the IRS runs blind. Here, tax evasion is the norm with only 2.2% of the population paying income tax.
That's not true.
Every year you get emails to file IT returns, and they have all records of all foreign flights I took, forex transactions I made on my card etc. Everything is linked to your PAN and Aaadhaar. To be clear this is fine with me.
> For context, income tax raids are common in India. Officials tear down walls and ceilings to find hidden cash, jewels and other undeclared assets. Forcing their way into your phones is a digital equivalent. From a legal perspective, I don't see why digital spaces are anymore private than one's own house.
Fine. However this is an overreach since tax evasion is not as a big problem as it was a decade ago due to digitization.
Tax to GDP is still low at around 11%, but that's because much of the population isn't required to pay tax(no tax till 12k$ which is too generous, they should instead decrease PIT threshold and reduce consumption taxes).
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 37.0 ms ] threadSocial media has caused this mass delusion where Indian problems can not even be discussed openly without being labelled a foreign agent or something worse. If you stop talking about the problems they don't just disappear.
For westerners, one quick thing you need to understand is that in India the written laws and constitution are totally irrelevant for day to day life, so the written law providing 100 freedoms is irrelevant. Anyone who has power can mostly do whatever they want to a large extent (offcourse there are limits basis how powerful they are). Just like in America it is said that the poor think of themselves as temporarily poor and rich someday, in India most people dream of gaining power and that sweet corruption money someday. People spend 5-10 years doing nothing but studying to get one of those sweet government jobs where bribes are universal and easily >5x your income.
Like in India everyone knows where black money is, well except the Government it seems. If the government had any interest in fixing tax avoidance they had many easy ways, but the Government is mostly interested in power.
Disclaimer: I strongly and truly believe that everyone should pay a reasonable percentage of tax on their entire income.
Infamously in the US, the IRS knows all. In India, the IRS runs blind. Here, tax evasion is the norm with only 2.2% of the population paying income tax.
> expanded scope of powers given to tax officials during search and seizure
For context, income tax raids are common in India. Officials tear down walls and ceilings to find hidden cash, jewels and other undeclared assets. Forcing their way into your phones is a digital equivalent. From a legal perspective, I don't see why digital spaces are anymore private than one's own house.
Yes, it limits freedoms. But, no more than than was the norm in a pre-internet India.
The last thing india needs is more bureaucracy and regulations and restrictions on personal freedoms (not to mention a free press which they've plummeted since the current PM's party took control).
That's not true.
Every year you get emails to file IT returns, and they have all records of all foreign flights I took, forex transactions I made on my card etc. Everything is linked to your PAN and Aaadhaar. To be clear this is fine with me.
> For context, income tax raids are common in India. Officials tear down walls and ceilings to find hidden cash, jewels and other undeclared assets. Forcing their way into your phones is a digital equivalent. From a legal perspective, I don't see why digital spaces are anymore private than one's own house.
Fine. However this is an overreach since tax evasion is not as a big problem as it was a decade ago due to digitization.
Tax to GDP is still low at around 11%, but that's because much of the population isn't required to pay tax(no tax till 12k$ which is too generous, they should instead decrease PIT threshold and reduce consumption taxes).