Letters to the Editor dated Feb 13, 2020

This refers to the editorial ‘The Centre must stop introducing new levies designed to spoon-feed data to taxman’ (Febraury 13). To suggest that TCS (tax collection at source) shall wax the rigmarole of filing returns and cause hardship may have some merit.

Having said that, it perhaps helps the remitters to understand their tax liability ab initio and make the decision by factoring all cost elements. It is easier said than done to put the onus squarely on the taxman to collect TCS. In India, with its myriad population, data mining is indeed a humongous task.

Moreover, if tax payees escape the notice of the taxman unwittingly or the tax payee turns out to be a defaulter on account of bona fide or mala fide reasons, then the taxman shall be running hither and thither unnecessarily. The middle path is, let there be a mechanism of quarterly return filing so that genuine refunds are expedited.

Chennai

Demonetisation was, indeed, a giant spoon or rather an oversize bucket that fed data to the taxman. The mechanism required to leverage that huge cache of data for augmented tax collection apparently is still not in place.

Even after almost four years, the government tamely comes up with a tax amnesty scheme and now this whimsical TCS. If it is on tours and travels now, it may apply to others later.

On the other hand, in the case of dividend tax it has retracted its earlier fiat of deduction at source. Modern day tax administration needs to be more sagacious than the likes of imposing lagaan of Raj vintage, if only for bridging transient needs due to fiscal incontinence.

The GST is a different story, where the need for a stable and sane architecture of an eminent scheme built over decades of consultation was sacrificed to haste dictated by a need for misplaced political visibility. The resulting disruption has been huge. The retrospective tax on telcom majors and the reluctance to find a way out of the Adjusted Gross Revenue impasse must add to overall disillusionment.

Navi Mumbai

This refers to ‘Weather woes add to farmer-suicide cases’ (February 13). The growing incidence of farmer suicides denotes that the actions and/or remedies executed by the governments at the Centre and States are deficient in resolving the issues of the farming community, more particularly, the marginalised sections. The recurring floods and droughts in most of the States are not only devastating the capital and labour of the farmers but also forcing them to quit agriculture and opt for other economic activities for their livelihoods. This often requires them to migrate to urban centres, which will be harmful to the rural economy in the long run.

Incentivising farming by making available inputs and capital at affordable rates, besides providing support on a need-based way at times of natural calamities, are vital to ease their hardships and motivate them to continue in the farming activities.

Kottayam

‘An appetite for a new source of talent’ (February 13) draws attention to the least used but highly productive source of talent acquisition in the form of our ex-servicemen. By training and experience they imbibe much needed competences of high performing employees — discipline, zeal for performance, putting organisational needs above personal, goal commitment and corporate citizenship. Also, their experience working in difficult situations gives them as much tenacity as flexibility to change according to the environment.

It is surprising that such a vast source of talent remains untapped mostly due to unfounded apprehensions. As employers we should give them first preference. A law making employment of a certain percentage of ex-soldiers compulsory is a crying need. Hungerbox Company deserves much praise for its work in this direction.

Pune

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters by email to bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

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