Here is a very serious revelation by
Shri P Sainath.
The Nation has been officially informed
periodically that the Government has written off a whopping THIRTY SIX LAKH CRORE RUPEES to corporate industries in past nine years !
This is shocking. But there is hardly
any protest or reaction in the national media - who are busy hair splitting on
minor issues.
I recommend you to read this article, with the seriousness it deserves.
nbs.
It is indeed sickening.
Is there any institution say the appropriate level of Judiciary, who could take a note of this serious financial lapse by Indian Corporate Sector and devise a solution to prevent such large scale corporate misappropriation leading to write off of India's immense wealth.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
India Resists
The revenues foregone in 2013-14
could fund the rural jobs scheme for three decades or the PDS for four and a
half years.
By P.
Sainath.
It was business as usual in 2013-14.
Business with a capital B. This year’s budget document says we gave away
another Rs. 5.32 lakh crores to the corporate
needy and the under-nourished rich in that year. Well, it says Rs. 5.72 lakh crores but
I’m leaving out the Rs. 40 K crore foregone on personal income tax since
that write-off benefits a wider group of people. The rest is mostly about a
feeding frenzy at the corporate trough. And, of course, that of other well-off
people. The major write-offs come in direct
corporate income tax, customs and excise duties.
If you think sparing the super-rich
taxes and duties worth Rs. 5.32 lakh crores is a trifle
excessive, think again. The amount we’ve written off for them since 2005-06 under the very same heads is
well over Rs. 36.5 lakh crore. (A
sixth of that in
just corporate income tax). That’s
Rs 36500000000000 wiped off for the big boys in nine years.
With Rs. 36.5 trillion
– for that is what it is – you could:
·
Fund the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for around 105 years, at present
levels. That’s more than any human being could expect to live. And a hell
of a lot more than any agricultural labourer would. You could, in fact,
run the MNREGS on that sum, across the working lives of two generations
of such labourers. The current allocation for the scheme is around Rs. 34,000
crore.
·
Fund the Public Distribution
System for 31 years. (current allocation Rs. 1,15,000 crores).
By the way, if these revenues had been
realized, around 30 per cent of their value would have devolved to the states.
So their fiscal health is affected by the Centre’s massive
corporate karza maafi.
Even just the amount foregone in
2013-14 can fund the rural jobs scheme for three decades. Or the PDS for
four and a half years. It is also over four times the ‘losses’ of the Oil
Marketing Companies by way of so-called ‘under-recoveries’ in 2012-13.
Look at some of the exemptions under
customs duty. There’s a neat Rs. 48,635 crore written off on ‘Diamonds
and Gold.’ Hardly aam aadmi or aam aurat items.
And more than what we spend on rural jobs. Fact: concessions on diamonds
and gold over the past 36 months total Rs. 1.6 trillion.
(A lot more than we’ll spend on the PDS in the coming year). In the
latest figures, it accounts for 16 per cent of the total revenue foregone.
The break-up of the budget’s revenue
foregone figure of Rs. 5.72 lakh crore for 2013-14 is interesting. Of
this, Rs. 76,116 crore was written off on just direct corporate income
tax. More than twice that sum (Rs.1,95,679 crore) was foregone on
Excise Duty. And well over three times the sum was sacrificed in Customs Duty
(Rs. 2,60,714 crores).
This, of course, has been going on for
many years in the ‘reforms’ period. But the budget only started carrying the
data on revenue foregone around 2006-07. Hence the Rs. 36.5 trillion write-off
figure. It would be higher had we the data for earlier years. (All of this, by
the way, falls within the UPA period). And the trend in this direction only grows. As the budget document
itself recognizes, “the total revenue foregone from central taxes is showing an
upward trend.“
It sure is. The amount written off in
2013-14 shows an increase of 132 per cent compared to the same concessions
in 2005-06.
Corporate karza maafi is a growth industry, and an efficient
one.
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