Dear Members,
I hope most of you have recovered from the
September pressure. This year was particularly overwhelming, with first
time audits under the Companies Act, 2013, Tax Audit, ITR filing and
Black Money filings all falling at the same time. As usual, the
government did not issue forms in time nor did it relent to extension
requests. The apathy on this topic has become a stable and predictable
feature. In spite of two courts giving directions, the insistence on not
extending the timeline continued. The Revenue Ministry seemed to
disregard the verdict of the Courts as well as request from taxpayers.
The apathy of Revenue Department is such that they would want assessees
to comply, whereas the rules are different for them. Endowed with
administrative privileges and powers, their share of responsibility is
disproportionately low. The way revenue laws are drafted and
administered, appear to be unfavourable for the citizens. The scariest
part of revenue law making today is, that it has become a legitimate way
to unleash excesses on citizens. A tax payer citizen, who is at the
core of this democracy, is now a victim of the very mechanism that is
meant to serve him. If there was the slightest sense of FAIRNESS and
CONSIDERAT ION of the overall situation a taxpayer was placed into, the
department would have suo motu extended the time line. Isn’t it a bit
too much, to ask for fairness and equality, a taxpayer has to go to the
Court. MOF took 4 months to issue new forms for the year that ended in
March 2015, yet it is unwilling to give one more month to tax payer to
carry out their filing. Add to that, the intermittent changes in the
utility even in the last few days. The most bizarre part of the whole
drama was when a press release came from CBDT on 1st October morning,
extending the ‘due date’ by 1 month. I leave to your good sense to
juxtapose all this against the talk about building a STA BLE, PREDICTA
BLE and NON ADVERSARIAL tax regime.
At the BCAS we celebrated the
INTERNAT IONAL RIGHT TO KNOW DAY and 10 years of RT I in India. As we
all know, RT I is the strongest instrument in the hands of our people to
protect, preserve and nurture justice, liberty and equality envisioned
and guaranteed by our founding fathers. Right to know is part of our
fundamental rights. The desire to know and the desire to use that
knowledge are seminal. Since RT I came into force, we have come a long
way asking for information that remained hidden in the secrecy lockers
of the government. Today about 50-80 lacs applications, are made each
year, seeking information. RT I has been a game changer for citizens’
rights and has put a spotlight on the government to move towards the
goal of transparency driven accountability. The struggle today is about
‘information’ – of receiving it for millions whose lives are impacted
whereas not parting with it for few thousands in the seat of power to
keep their chairs. The key note speaker at RT I event Mr. Nikhil Dey,
ended his talk with a very potent quote of Jeremy Cronin – ‘Now we need
to speak truth to power, we now need to make truth powerful, we now need
to make the powerful truthful’. Each one will have to decide whether he
wants to be in the majority who only wishes for the change or he wants
to be in the minority who will become the change they seek!
Talking of
information, India is marching ahead of the rest of the world in the
area of information technology (IT). The way things are moving, IT could
be the singular redeemer for the destinies of 1.25 billion people. The
MEGATREND S we are seeing will create a tectonic change at a never
imagined pace. Our countrymen, without going through desktops, laptops
or tablets will leapfrog into a different orbit through a little gadget
in their hands. A smart phone, available from Rs. 2500 is at the centre
of this revolution in making. Here are a few samples, taken from a
recent conference, that we need to pay heed to:
Increase in Electronic Clearing – For the first time electronic clearing is on par with paper clearing. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI, www.npci.org.in) has created IMPS, an instant clearing product. It was created in 2011 and in 3 years it overtook ‘money order’ (established 1880, and dead now) volumes. IMPS has 1/3 remittance market in India. IMPS will overcome Debit and Credit Card Sales very soon. India has Rs. 800-900 billion remittance market today.
Digital Wallet – Today 900 million Mobile users carry out 3 – 3.5 billion mobile recharges of small values. Digital Wallet has tremendous potential in numerous areas of making transactions through mobiles.
Today DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) Program of the government for LPG subsidy alone makeup to 3 million transactions a day or 1 billion transaction a year, reaching 120 million customers. This saved Rs. 15000 crore ($2.5 billion) for the government according to the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech. If this is extended to fertilisers, food, water, etc., it can reach 4 billion transactions and transfer Rs. 300,000 crore ($50 billion).
11 Payment Banks are given licences. This is perhaps the greatest regulatory innovation in recent times. They cannot offer loans but can take money up to Rs. 100,000 and work through mobiles. They will make you do cashless, cheque less, card less transactions.
Today highest E-Commerce transactions are happening in India (and 40% of all transactions are happening through mobile)
The winning formula is 1 billion ADHAAR (900 million already) by 2016 and 1 billion Mobile phones. This magic recipe will result in online authentication, instantaneous bank account opening, instant KYC, and two way credential check (will work as credit card and PIN both). Such two way authentication is nowhere in the world – a single click 2 factor authentication. Most of you will know ADHAAR based e-verification of ITRs this year. Credential checking will be like never before.
The dream of universal banking is closer to reality than ever before. Jan Dhan Yojana has created some 180 million bank accounts in a short time. With 1 billion ADHAAR, 1 billion bank accounts and 1 billion mobile phones the economic landscape of the country will be changed both in size and pace.
Smart Phones will do the work of payment for the payer and for the Merchant it will serve as a receiver of that payment. Unified Payment Interface of NPCI will perhaps make POS Machines, ATM s redundant.
Take for example – PAYTM . It gives you a Person to Merchant payment. PAYTM that began in 2010 is doing more number (volume) of purchase transactions than any bank in India – in ONLY 5 YEARS. But there will be Person to Person wallet also happening soon. Any ‘wallet’ to any ‘wallet’ transaction. This P2P Transaction system will be launched in December 2015 and could reduce cash movement drastically.
Although there will be ATM s and Bank Branches, every person will be an ATM . If a person wanted currency note he could transfer to the persons standing next to him on a local train and in return get a Rs. 100 note from his fellow traveller. Well you could be buying your sabzi with your mobile soon and won’t have to carry your wallet at all!
Digital Locker – This is a mega innovation happening. Check out their website digitallocker.gov.in
