The countdown for budget day has been instigated. In a financial year,February is the most vital month for all the stakeholders of the country and for global investors.A decade ago,budget presented by finance minister used to be a top secret.The stuffing and course of action of the budget to be presented was made public only on the budget day.There was no insinuation for the market to speculate on what could be in the budget.But as the days passed,the rules of budget secrecy changed to a larger extent.For instance,in this year before presenting the budget, incumbent finance minister is knocking the doors of global investors to assure them that this budget is going to be investor friendly.This is completely false assurances keeping in mind the constant unjustified pestering by tax officials to companies like Shell,Nokia,Vodaphone etc.Another instance of pre-budget clue was there will be inclusion of inheritance tax and rich will be taxed at a higher rate.I will speak in this article only on imposing higher rate of tax on rich.
Ministry of Finance’s allusion that rich in India will be taxed at a higher rate emerged as a free publicity to Gerard Depardieu in India.Who is Gerard Depardieu? Gerard is a French actor who recently took Russian citizenship renouncing French citizenship only because French Government decided to tax rich at a higher rate of 75%.Disappointed with these,he took Russian citizenship.Few stakeholders of India started citing Gerard’s case if rich people are taxed at a higher rate.But these is not true at all.Aziz Premzi was an exceptional to this case who strongly favoured taxing rich at a higher rate saying it’s our duty to help the nation whenever needed. Gerard should be asked was there any feeling of patriotism or jingoism in him before taking such decision. French citizens and their fan-following made Gerard a eminent personality.Now,if French Government is asking him to pay something more so that the people can be empowered to raise their standard of living and development can occur in the nation, Gerard directly changes the citizenship. To what extent is this justified? Citizens of French surely played a major role in making his lavish career. When the same country and same citizen asked for his help,he showed his back.
To my understanding,this will never happen in India. Rich Indians are surely patriotic and have a strong sense of feeling to contribute towards the society so that the underprivileged and the middle class should be empowered to raise their standard of living and income. One thing we all need to understand which Gerard disregarded, our country which gave us bread and butter, education, employment, luxurious life etc, it’s our duty to give back something in return to our country. Not just in the form of paying tax.Also if the government is in short of some funds to develop the society it’s the rich who should first come ahead voluntarily to help the society. Taking citizenship of another country just to run away from your social responsibility is not an solution. Take Sharukh Khan,Aziz Premzi or Mukesh Ambani or any other HNIs,no one will oppose this move of finace ministry to develop India.This is because they all are born and brought up in the sacrosanct Indian culture who know their social duties and more important they know the meaning of the word “help” better than Gerard Depardieu.
According to me,the finace ministry should go ahead with these proposal to tax rich at a higher rate.Our rich Indians will surely support the governmet in these policy.But the core question arises is wil the additional fund collected from rich will reach the needy citizens?
