India Today

On a day when the Chief Minister of a prominent state says More people are taking (Sabarimala) Ayyapa Swamy ‘deeksha’ and abstaining from liquor consumption for 40 days. To that extent our liquor sales are going down, it makes one wonder how India is running. With no real income except liquor and taxes and with no heavy industry being created, it looks as if it’s a charade maintained just to impress people. Where are the jobs is the primary question. And then, what are the jobs being created is the next one. Excluding services, one has to seriously search for the jobs which are getting created in India. Have a look at India’s share of Forbes 2000 largest and powerful public listed companies of the world. The share of the world’s 7^th largest economy is a paltry 56 and India entersg the list at 121^st position. India’s share in the top 1000 is below.

Rank	Company	Sector
121	Reliance Industries	Petroleum
149	State Bank of India	Services
220	Oil & Natural Gas	Petroleum
266	ICICI Bank	Services
275	HDFC Bank	Services
278	Tata Motors	Industry
371	Indian Oil	Petroleum
385	Tata Consultancy Services	Services
400	NTPC	Industry
404	HDFC	Services
453	Bharti Airtel	Services
465	Coal India	Industry
484	Axis Bank	Services
505	Larsen & Toubro	Industry
590	Infosys	Services
650	Bharat Petroleum	Petroleum
755	Wipro	Services
781	ITC	Industry
801	Bank of Baroda	Services
866	Punjab National Bank	Services
899	Kotak Mahindra Bank	Services
901	Mahindra & Mahindra	Industry
942	Power Grid of India	Industry
943	HCL Technologies	Services
946	Canara Bank	Services

Breakup –

Industry	7
Petroleum	4
Services	14

Except petroleum and services, we see nothing barring a handful. Note that services exist only if there is real money existing somewhere. Excluding global behemoths like NTPC or Coal India, the real industry share of India in the world’s largest 1000 companies is Tata Motors, L&T and ITC. Even, L&T and ITC have got a considerable share of Services among them. Do we really have real money? Or is it a charade which is going to be ripped apart one day or the other? What was the percentage of jobs created in India in the last decade which went to heavy industry? And what percent is it, considering the total workforce? Do we have answers for any of them?

Let’s take the case of the primary sources of income India has – liquor and taxes. For example, let’s consider Tamil Nadu where the government holds monopoly over liquor sales. TASMAC(Tamil Nadu government’s liquor wing)’s revenue is to the tune of 29000 crores, around 20-30% of the state’s total annual income. If I say, ban liquor, can any state take the pressure and sustain? In an age where freebies are distributed using loans, thereby increasing fiscal deficit, can we even dream to think of banning liquor from a financial point of view? Andhra Pradesh and Haryana tried to ban liquor. But, they had to roll back, unable to take the severe financial pressure. Note that every government department has got a target. Now, I wonder, what’s going to be the target for TASMAC, Bevco or such companies. Are we saying that a part of the government machinery spends it’s time preaching people the merits of drinking – either motivating people to drink more or motivating more people to drink? Except for sad exceptions like Gujarat, this is the story everywhere in India.

Next, coming to taxes. The innovation in increasing or creating new taxes or cesses, if the government shows in some real work, the state of the country would have been much better. Below is a sampling of the taxes/cesses introduced by the current cycle(Jun 2016) –

Krishi Kalyan Cess – 0.5%

1% additional tax in case of anything bought above 2 lakh. The number varies according to the type of item. For example, if it is jewellery, it is 5 lakh

Changes to TDS.

Taxation on PF withdrawl

This is but a sample of what India is going through. There are a thousand taxes from Swachchh Bharat cess to Income Tax to everything. Instead of confusing people with these number games, it would do everyone much good if a fixed percent is asked as tax on income and another on expenses. Percentages may vary according to slab, but the total tax heads should be only one. It’s not that these numbers are small. 0.5% Krishi Kalyan Cess will amount to almost 5000 crores in a calendar year, a considerable amount. As it stands today, the governments ask people to pay road tax and then tolls for using the same roads built using the road tax. The governments charge money on what I earn and what I spend, which is fine. But, as time progresses, the amount of taxes I pay increase. Daily, a new cess or tax is introduced and the only thing, for our relief, India doesn’t tax is imputed rent.

Is this how the governments are supposed to work – by juggling numbers and bribing morals? And on top of this, we got this attitude of callousness – no one will do me anything if I don’t work. There are three things which I immediately notice when talking about Make in India. A foreigner comes to invest in India.

Can you tell me where can I set my factory up?

Well, the land bill is stuck in Parliament; I can’t do much

Can you tell me if there is any benefits if I chose that state over this?

Well, GST is stuck in Parliament; till that time, there will be.

Can I fire a non-performer?

You can’t. Recently, there was a strike of Central Government Unions; almost 150 million people came onto roads to resist the changes to labour law we are proposing.

You don’t know where to invest, you don’t know what are the taxes, you can’t even fire someone who doesn’t work. Who the hell is going to invest in this country? Did we miss that simple point?

It’s high time we revamp this working culture and try to find out a way to cut down the wastage thereby providing us a better India to live. The motto should be Eight Hours Work for Eight Hours Pay, not Eight Hours Pay for Eight Hours Work, Work Optional.

I will try to write a series of articles picking specific problems and try to find a way to address them. Let’s see how capable I am and how workable they are. And if they focus more on harnessing technology, that’s because I work in IT.