The Hindu Business Line : Taxing the tinge of binge on the fringe

WITH the Budget only a month away, there is a clamour that the one-year-old fringe benefit tax (FBT) be dethroned, or at least, de-fanged. It seems remote that the Finance Minister would consign FBT to a bin of failed ideas. Instead, we may stand witness to what came in as `fringe,' firmly embedding itself as a core form of taxation. Shall we, therefore, come to terms with fringe?

The word appears after `frilled lizard' in Concise Oxford English Dictionary, and is defined as "a border of threads, tassels, or twists, used to edge clothing or material". An ornamental border consisting of short straight or twisted threads or strips hanging from cut or ravelled edges or from a separate band, explains Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. An ornamental appendage to the border of an item, such as a flag, says Wikipedia. "It originally consisted of the ends of the warp, projecting beyond the woven fabric. More commonly it is made separate and sewed on."

The word is about 700 years old. "1354, from Old French frenge (1316)... Latin fimbriæ (pl.) `fibres, threads, fringe,' of uncertain origin. Figurative sense of `outer edge, margin,' is first recorded 1894," informs Online Etymology Dictionary. Infringe (circa 1467) is from Latin infringere `to damage, break off,' from in- `in' + frangere `to break', says www.etymonline.com.

A snatch from Old Testament has more than a fringe: "Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue."

And the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) narrates, "The Jews wore fringes to their garments. These fringes on the garments of the priests were accounted sacred, and were touched by the common people as a charm."

Before launching into taxing proposals, Finance Ministers too weave in some charm in the form of sops. Thus, paragraph 159 of the Budget speech delivered on February 28, 2005, had a fringe. Mr P. Chidambaram said, "While the tax reliefs that I have given today should warm the hearts of the taxpayers, I have also an obligation to raise resources," listeners shifted in their seats, not knowing what lay beyond.

"The fringed curtains of thine eye advance and say what thou seest yond," says Prospero poetically, in The Tempest. But the FBT that hit taxpayers in paragraph 160 was more than what was feared.

Advance your eyes to the subsequent paragraph, where you notice an innocuous fringe again, with the Finance Minister smugly believing that he had given "a large measure of relief to personal income tax payers" and hoping, "all sections of the people and all members of the House are happy."

Rosalind speaks of "the skirts of the forest, like fringe upon a petticoat," in As You Like It. Alas, what lies beneath the frailly named tax, though, isn't as inviting, fret the assessees who come under the yoke of a regime that is far from their liking.

Fringe is "the outer or less important part of an area, group or activity," defines Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. If a place is fringed with something, that thing forms a border along the edge, as in the case of a river fringed with wild flowers, explains the dictionary. Fringe is a marginal, peripheral, or secondary part, says www.bartleby.com. "They like to hang out on the geographical fringes, the seedy outposts," is a James Atlas quote on the site.

The word also means "the front part of someone's hair, cut so as to hang over the forehead," as www.askoxford.com defines.

"Take a small section of hair depending on how thick you require your fringe, clip the remaining hair out of your way, part your sectioned hair to be cut in the centre," guides a DIY (do it yourself) page on www.ukhairdressers.com, with illustrations. The year 1997 was `the year of the fringe', writes Karen M. Shelton in an article titled `Fringe Fever' on www.hairboutique.com. Fringe is the hot name for `bangs', which have been popular off and on for many years, she adds. "The fringe gives you an instant new look without any change to the rest of your hair... Fringes are safe because they will grow out." With FBT, it is more likely that taxpayers will grow out of the fringe fears, when they gradually give up hopes on the tax ever going out.

Fringe means "an area of action that is far away from the centre of activity or interest in a specific field (usually used in the plural)," says Encarta.

Example, "On the fringes of political life." In politics, the mainstream may view fringe parties as oddball and seemingly useless, notes a posting on www.straight.com. "Fringe politics may seem eccentric and annoying, but an obscure fringe group may someday save us all."

Political parties, big and small, have factions with members whose views may be extreme; they form the radical fringe. In extreme cases, the fringe may hive itself off as a separate party; but when elections are around the corner, reunions aren't rare. `Lunatic fringe' refers to "a political unit with extreme and fanatical views," cautions www.onelook.com. "If organised religion is the opium of the masses, then disorganised religion is the marijuana of the lunatic fringe," says Kerry Thornley. That every reform movement has a lunatic fringe, is a quote of Theodore Roosevelt.

In Golf Dictionary on WorldGolf.com, fringe a.k.a. apron, appears after `fried-egg' (that is, a ball half-buried in the sand), and before `frog hair' (the short grass that borders the edge of the putting surface). Fringe is "the area surrounding the putting green which is sometimes cut to a height lower than the fairway but not as short as the green itself."

According to http://scienceworld.wolfram.com, fringe means "the interference pattern obtained by correlating the observed strength as a function of phase shift." In synthesis imaging, the fringe pattern is termed the fringe visibility or complex visibility, explains the physics dictionary.

Fizeau fringes, fringe stopping, and white light fringe are among other phrases you can look up. "Fringe science is a phrase used to describe scientific inquiry in an established field that departs significantly from mainstream or orthodox theories," states http://en.wikipedia.org.

Fringe theatres and festivals are not uncommon. People shouldn't expect the mass media to do investigative stories, says Ted Koppel. "That job belongs to the `fringe' media." Everyone, at one time or another, has been at the fringe of society in some way, avers Alice Hoffman.

Returning to FBT, the pragmatic may not take the simplification promise too seriously.

For, the overriding logic that the FM has been hinging on to is that when fringe benefits have more than a tinge of binge element, it may be pointless to cringe on the tax.

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

D. Murali

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