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Category: Light Elements

Jai India

Light Elements

As soon as the UPA Government won the ‘confidence vote’
(manufactured or otherwise, God knows) our prince of Delhi, Rahul Gandhi flew by
a chopper to meet Kalawati and Shashikala, poor women in Vidarbha in Maharashtra,
whose poverty was exposed by the prince very vividly to move the stone-hearted
(that is what the prince presumes) MPs to support the controversial nuclear deal
with the supercop America, consequently, to save the Government.


Kalawati and Shashikala were busy with their chores. Our
prince was very enthusiastic and excited as the chopper was hovering over the
village of Kalawati and Shashikala. He was trying to locate them through his
binoculars in the farms below. Eventually the prince could spot the honourable
ladies not through binoculars, but when the chopper landed. The prince greeted
Kalawati and Shashikala with folded hands (it should be the other way round).
But the prince was in a hurry. Reluctantly, Kalawati and Shashikala just looked
at the prince.

“You didn’t recognise me. I am Rahul Gandhi from Delhi” said
the prince dusting his Ray Ban goggles. Dynastic young MPs from the Congress
party and its allies (note we are in ‘coalition era’, so allies) accompanying
the prince Rahul shouted in chorus ‘Rahulji Zindabad’, ‘Rahulji Aage Badho, Hum
Tumhare Sath Hai’. With this slogan-shouting, the tiny village came to life. The
otherwise jobless villagers thronged to where the prince had located Kalawati
and Shashikala, first to have a close look of the ‘chopper’ and then for a
cursory glimpse of a would-be Prime Minister of India.

“Silence, Silence” one of the young MPs screamed with full
steam in his lungs.

“Ladies and Gentlemen !”

“Why are you leaving out the children ?” a query came from
the crowd.

“Ok, Ok Ladies, Gentlemen and Children, including children on
the waists of their mothers — now I hope you would be happy. Rahulji is back
with you after winning ‘confidence vote’ to inform and interact with you about
the nuclear energy deal”. As he ended his mini introductory speech, somebody
from the crowd queried,

“Who is this Rahul ? I mean Rahul Mahajan or Rahul Gandhi ?”

“Oh my God ! my dear uncle I mean, Rahuljiiiii Gandhijiiiiii . . .  . .”

There was big laughter. As the noise died down, the prince
Rahul took charge of the gullible mob of villagers and started his speech :

“As an Indian (why Indian ?) I stand before you. My dear
countrymen, trust me, we won the motion of confidence moved by our (what do you
mean by our Prime Minister ?) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh just a few hours
ago. I am here to convey to you how ‘nuclear deal’ with the USA is the only
solution to eradicate ‘your’ poverty, I mean poverty in this country. When I met
Kalawati and Shashikala from your village before the Parliamentary Session
convened for the confidence motion, I heard their plight, their children cannot
study at night due to power shortage in this area. I realised that nuclear
energy is the only solution to remove the poverty in this country. You will ask
me, how ? With nuclear energy there will be rapid industrial growth. India will
be the industrial hub of the world. It will create millions of jobs. Then there
will be no poverty in the country. Therefore my dear countrymen, nuclear energy
is the only solution to remove poverty from this country. I am sure after long
long years, at least 20 to 30 years, we will have full-fledged nuclear energy in
the country if we now strike a deal with America. Consequently, sons of Kalawati
and Shashikala will get jobs.

My dear countrymen, one more thing I would like to tell you,
we should not worry about how the world will impact us. We should impact the
world. We should train ourselves to dream of things that never were there and
ask why not, then only we will become a super power in the world of tomorrow.
Say, Jai India, Jai India, Jai India !”

All young MPs and villagers recited the new slogan coined by
the prince of modern India with a bit of confusion, some were saying ‘Jai Hind’
and some were saying ‘Jai India’. What a speech indeed ! It appeared that
majority of villagers were more confused than convinced by the speech of the
prince.

All the young MPs including the prince felt thirsty. Of late
they realised that they were under the scorching sun of Vidarbha where monsoon
plays hide and seek. When they thronged the chopper to grab a water bottle, alas
the villagers had either consumed or taken away all the crates of water bottles.
The prince was very furious. He asked to check the whereabouts of the pilot. The
pilot was smoking in a relaxed mood behind the tree just a stone’s throw away
from the chopper. Somebody shouted his name. Hurriedly the pilot took a last
drag and spun the butt. He appeared before the prince. The prince started to
berate the pilot left, right and centre. An old villager in his 70s came forward
and intervened,

“My son why are you so angry with the pilot ? Cool down, this
area has been suffering from water shortage since your great grandfather was
Prime Minister of this country. People in this village are thirsty as well as
hungry. They may have consumed the water bottles. For them a drop of water is
more important than one megawatt of electricity created with the help of nuclear
energy. Apart from your great grandpa, neither your grandma, nor your father
could remove the poverty from this country. My son, poverty is our ancestral
property. You talked about future of this country after 20 to 30 years, but what
about those intervening period of 20 to 30 years, poverty will grow in geometric
progression. So my son, don’t try to cook a ‘khichadi’ [nuclear energy, rapid
industrialisation, jobs to millions, no poverty ?] of Birbal under the fire of
‘nuclear energy’ for us.”

“You talked about impacting the world, mind you, with empty stomachs and dry throats of millions, living without shelter, you cannot impact the world. It is easier said than done (in the Parliament of India) to impact the world.”

My son, your great grandfather discovered ancient India and wrote a book ‘Discovery of India’. Now it is for you to ‘Rediscover’ India after independence and don’t write a book, it is not enough now, but ‘write off’ the poverty in this country. Jai Hind.”

There was a loud applause. Spontaneously all of them shouted “Jai Hind, Jai Hind, Jai Hind.”

The prince of New Delhi with his head down to the ground slowly walked towards ‘East’ where the chopper was parked.

With due respect to the ‘Faculty’

Light Elements

With the advent of mandatory CPE hours there is mushroom
growth of faculties in the country. Thanks to the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of India. Well, faculties are growing from grassroot to local, state
and national levels. In the past the organisers would be facing the problem of
audience. But now due to mandatory CPE hours there is no shortage of audience,
morning, afternoon, evening, I mean at any point of time. Really, CPE hours has
made magical impact on the professional fraternity. We have ‘back-to-the-school’
kind of feeling. No ‘bunking’ of CPE hours.


Introduction of faculty — one of the organisers does this job
with a smiling face and turning his head incessantly towards the faculty to
check his beaming face, who is adjusting himself in the chair and whispering in
the ear of the next to him. He begins “Ladies and gentleman, today’s faculty,
none other than bla bla bla, . . . . all of us know him very well, he doesn’t
need introduction . . . .”, but still he continues for next 5 to 10 minutes or
more [testing your patience] . . . . faculty’s record-breaking academic career,
then comes his professional and social contributions in terms of books he
authored, lectures at various forums he delivered, chairmanship, membership,
directorship he held in various prominent organisations, companies, cooperative
banks, cooperative societies [excluding the housing society where he lives]
public trusts, NGOs of local, state, national or international repute, his
career as visiting faculty . . . . , his extra curricular activities like
mountaineering, cycling, singing, dancing, yoga, his love for birds and animals
[once in fact I heard the faculty having purchased a ‘race horse’] so on so
forth . . . . eventually asking the faculty to take charge of the proceedings
[perhaps having realised that he is encroaching upon the time allotted to the
faculty of the day], he ends the introduction. Thank God ! Indeed the audience
breathes a sigh of relief.

At the end of the introduction there is a loud applause till
the faculty reaches the podium. Then come corrections by the faculty in his ‘bio
data’ rehearsed by the overenthusiastic curtain-raiser. It brings cheers in the
auditorium.

Generally our national game ‘cricket’ comes handy for the
faculty to begin with. For example, if there are two lectures in succession and
the faculty happens to deliver the first lecture, he invariably compares himself
with ‘opening batsman’ [most of the time Sachin Tendulkar or Sunil Gavaskar] or
compares his lecture as ‘first inning’. Sometimes the faculty being an ardent
fan of cricket keeps on referring cricketing terms like one day, test match,
20-twenty, slog overs, bouncers, googly, silly point, etc. during the course of
his lecture. However, ironically the audience experiences the fatigue of a test
match ended in ‘draw’ at the end of the lecture.

Some faculties are not techno-savvy and some are
techno-savvy, they resort to PowerPoint presentation. What they do is simply go
on explaining contents of image after image on the screen with the help of a
laptop on the podium. [it may sound harsh to read . . . . it is just like
‘copying’ from book in the examination]. Tight rope walk for the audience, to
read the contents of the image on the screen as well as digest what the faculty
is explaining in his most clumsy language, further to note down the citation
thrown by the faculty ‘out of his pocket’ as a special bonus. [Note that you
need to activate your physical ‘faculties’ like hearing, seeing, reasoning and
writing at a time to absorb what the ‘faculty’ is conveying.] It is a regular
practice of asking for ‘once more’ to the citation referred by the faculty on
the lines of ‘once more’ to filmy song in the orchestra. I wonder what they do
with the citation so noted down on the chit of the paper back home.

More often than not when the learned faculty is explaining
the ‘judicial view or trend’ in the country, he refers decisions of various High
Courts and the Supreme Court, obviously on the same ‘issue’ (note that any Court
is referred and addressed as ‘Honorable Court’ without fail even while
ridiculing the ‘decision’ of such Court) right from Kashmir to Kanyakumari one
after another, that too with chronological antecedents spanning from British
rule to Mahatma Gandhi Rule (at present we are under “Mahatma Gandhi Rule) I
mean pre- and post-Independence. It reminds me of Hanuman jumping from one
palace to another palace in the kingdom of Ravana in his effort to douse his
tail on fire. Eventually Hanuman burns the entire Lanka of Ravana. So does the
faculty, I mean the audience experiences a total ‘washout’.

At the end of the lecture there is ‘Sawal-Jabab’, I mean
question-answer session. It is like ‘dare show’ either for the faculty or for
the audience depending upon the nature of subject dealt with by the faculty. If
the subject is a general subject like capital gain, business expenditure,
depreciation or MAT, etc. the question-answer session turns out to be ‘dare
show’ for the faculty, because most of the questions are hypothetical one
sprouting from ‘instant imagination’ of the members of the audience. On the
contrary, if the subject is a ‘special’ subject like transfer pricing,
derivative transaction, or cross-border transactions, any accounting standard,
etc., the question-answer session ‘if at all’ takes place [more particularly in
mofussil area] it is ‘dare show’ for the audience. This ‘dare show’ bares the
importance of CPE hours in a true sense, look at the quality of queries raised.

Handling of question-answer session is a skilled job for the
faculty. Well, normally he wants to wind it up quickly, so at the outset, he
declares “Due to time constraint I would not be able to answer all questions”.
What few questions he answers he answers in ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ style. For some
questions he complains about illegibility of handwriting of the queriest, so
those questions remain unanswered. Looking at some questions he is shrewd enough
to declare that “I have replied this question in my lecture, I think the
queriest was sleeping or was not in the hall”. Next few questions he prefers to
reply in writing, obviously replies would be sent to the organisers in couple of
weeks. Sometimes the faculty cross-questions the queriest to answer, so that the
queriest gets embarrassed, consequently the original question dissolves in the
air. Mischievous queries are left out deliberately in consultation with the
organiser sitting next to the faculty.

Know your A.O.

LIGHT ELEMENTS

‘Know your judge before you know law’ it sounds very simple.
Obviously, it has direct relevance to legal proceedings. It deals with the
mindset of the person in the chair of judge. My friend Herambha Shastri once
elaborated this adage when we were deliberating an income-tax case. Let me share
with you Herambha’s interesting musings over this issue.

‘First we should make an ‘amendment’ to this maxim for the
purpose of proceedings under the income tax law as ‘Know your Assessing Officer
before you know Income-tax law’. You know the facts. You know the law. You know
the case law. But alas! If you don’t know the AO, then you suffer.

How do you know the AO? For that matter first you should
imagine and be in the AO’s shoes. Given the discretionary powers under the
Income Tax Act, think how you can exercise those powers ‘irrationally and
illogically’. It is said that ‘facts come first and law comes next’. But mind
you, under the income-tax proceedings the discretionary powers of the AO come
first, facts come next and then the law follows (if at all, by the time you
reach the Appellate stage).

Never show that you know the income-tax law more than the AO,
since there is ‘a deeming fiction’, though unwritten, that the AO is always
well-versed with the law he implements. His knowledge about case laws is
state-of-the-art as if he has delivered all those judgments. So please don’t
flaunt your knowledge of law and the case law. This is all about what you should
have in mind before you enter the AO’s office.

The moment you knock the door to enter the cabin be careful
about observing the protocol established in the British era (say, ‘May I come in
Sir, I am so sorry to bother you’ etc. ). A slight mistake may vitiate the
atmosphere and hence the proceedings even before they begin.

Having entered the cabin, don’t occupy the chair till the AO
asks you to sit. Normally, he lets you in but will not attend to you till you
feel awkward and uneasy. You keep looking around aimlessly. What you find is a
medium-size dusty framed photograph of Mahatma Gandhi on the wall, then a
calendar, obviously given by one of the taxpayers (maybe wanting to impress the
AO), a shelf stacked with files and papers full of dust, a steel cupboard with
topped with bundles of some more files in red cloth, a ceiling fan rattling over
the head of the AO along with humming of the air-conditioner and old books on
Income-tax Act and Rules, and ready reckoners which appears never to have been
touched.

Give the AO sufficient time to complete his conversation on
the phone if he happens to be on the line with the higher-ups or some friend.
Don’t stretch your hand for a shake-hand for your introduction. Unfortunately,
this British cutom is somewhat despised in the Income-tax Department. I don’t
know why? When the AO finishes his conversation or his work on hand, he will
stare at you and wave at you with his hand indicating you to sit (as if he is
very considerate to you). When you settle in the chair, don’t bother to
introduce yourself, that is of no consequence till it is time to sign the order
sheet. Only indicate the assessee’s name.

The AO would then become active and start the search for the
file on the ‘hit list’. Normally, he finds it instantly in that mess if he wants
to. I wonder how? But unfortunately he can never locate the copy of the notice
sent by him. His assistant also fails in that pursuit. This is the first
opportunity to begin co-operating with the Department, don’t lose it, so take
out the copy of the notice from your file and hand it over to the AO but be
placid. The AO would just chuckle.

Consider the AO as a dormant volcano. Sometimes he would
place in your hand a printed questionnaire or dictate questions orally depending
upon the stakes (obviously government’s stake) involved in and his homework of
the case. Normally, he starts his ‘homework’ after your submissions. Thereafter,
you start feeling the ‘heat’ of his discretionary powers till your position
becomes vulnerable and non-negotiable. You become paranoid about what would be
the AO’s perspective. If the AO is a direct recruit he will be more stern,
studious and innovative about the compliance of tax laws. If he is promoted as
an AO from within the Department he will be more concerned about procedural
matters. If he is on the verge of retirement he will be lenient and
understanding, compared to a younger AO. A lady AO will, probably, be more
professional.

Here my friend Herambha stopped his elaboration. But he made
a very subtle remark, ‘Keep in mind, there is no penalty for ‘concealment of
satisfaction’ by the AO under the income-tax law’. May be CPE programmes should
have a course in psychology as well.

levitra

Some thoughts on working late

LIGHT ELEMENTS

The President of the Society had in his column in the March
2010 issue of the BCA Journal, brought the attention of readers to some of the
rare qualities of CA Aditya Puri (the Managing Director of HDFC Bank who had
recently won a prestigious award), particularly his time management skills which
help him to leave his office every day at 5.30 p.m. The President had requested
readers to apply their thought on that aspect, considering the fact that
Chartered Accountants — both in practice and in employment — are generally prone
to working late. Taking the cue, the author tries in a lighter vein to analyse
the culture of working late which has now spread to almost all sectors of
commercial activity in the country.

Globalisation has brought many things to India, and working
late is one among them. Not that we Indians are not used to late working hours.
We do work late when need arises. What is new is the culture of regularly and
compulsively working into the late hours of night. Those working in today’s
so-called sunrise sectors are always seen working well past sunset. For them
apparently the sun only rises, it never sets.

Some are sceptical — and sometimes even a bit suspicious — of
people working late. Probably they carry such thoughts out of their past
experiences. When there are different views on the virtues and weaknesses (not
necessarily vices !) of working late, it will be good examining the different
aspects of late working.

The common impression that a person working late — or an
organisation that encourages employees working late — conveys is that they are
so busy and overloaded with work that they cannot complete their work without
putting in longer hours. But on closer scrutiny one often finds that this is not
true. Organisations which follow the modern (read American) management-style
employ less people than what is required, so that they can pay higher
remuneration to employees without increasing their total wage bill. As a result,
their limited number of employees are forced to slog it out. It is with this
aspect in mind that management schools train their students to study and work in
sleep-deprived environment without losing their senses. Most business
enterprises are not bothered by studies that show that deprivation of sleep
adversely affects the productivity of employees.

Even in the modern business organisation where the office is
always open late into the night, and all employees are present, it is
questionable whether everyone is actually working. When employees working in
frontline IT companies say that everyday they work from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and so
on, one is naturally a bit curious. If one asks an employee, in confidence, what
exactly is the work that is done late into the night one can expect a reply
somewhat like this : “I actually work for 3 or 4 hours maximum. The rest of the
time I am awaiting my senior’s instruction to start working with him. My senior
is always doing something unrelated to work, and mostly roaming around.
Everyday, right from morning, I ask him at intervals of a couple of hours ‘Shall
we start ?’, but every time he replies, ‘No, wait’. Finally, by 8 p.m. or so, he
asks me to join him, and we start working. No wonder we will reach somewhere
only by 11 p.m.” This is found to be the case with many people working in the
so-called emerging businesses. The blogs of employees in the Internet too
confirm this.

Even if it is not the policy of an organisation to make every
employee regularly work overtime, employees do sit up late for different
reasons. The obvious reason is to impress the bosses. But there are less obvious
reasons too.

For some habitual late workers — whether employed or
self-employed — their work-place is not their ‘second home’ but ‘first home’
itself. These unfortunate guys do not get peace of mind in their homes for some
reason, and so they remain in offices as long as possible to minimise time spent
at home. What they do at their offices in the after-hours is anyone’s guess —
chatting with friends on or off phone or net, partying (with or without booze),
reading and sending out unnecessary emails, browsing the net or taking a nap. If
possible, they encourage lot of visitors to their offices after office-hours,
thus converting the office into some kind of a club. Some carry the idea of
‘home’ to such an extent that they actually have a bed too in their offices. In
such cases, the public cannot be blamed for suspecting something.

The accounting profession is famous for continuing to work
after everyone else has gone home. But accountants working late are sometimes
viewed with suspicion too. There is the story of a chief accountant in an
organisation who was working well past midnight everyday. The accounts were,
however, very much in arrears. The late sitting was also justification for the
accountant to come late — by late afternoon — everyday. He thus reached the
office when everyone was preparing to leave, and he was working all alone
(presumably) all through night. When there was a change of management, he was
told to follow regular working hours, and an inquiry was made into the accounts
being maintained by him. As skeletons started falling from every cupboard, the
chief accountant was fired.

To be fair to those working late, all of them must not be
equated with the accountant in the above story. Not everyone is doing illegal or
unnecessary things — or entertaining themselves — while burning midnight oil.
One of the reasons is that not everyone is competent enough to handle different
types of work during normal working hours. Many bank managers, for instance,
cannot gather the mental concentration required to scrutinise loan applications
or monitor their non-performing parties during normal hours when they are
attending to customers. They therefore sit up late to do those jobs. Such
employees deserve sympathy, not scorn.

Some others overburden themselves, as they do not delegate
work. For many in this category, the problem is that they do not trust any of
their subordinates. For some others, it is a way of making themselves
indispensable. They follow the age old maxim : ‘Keep things pending, so that the
pending will keep you’.

At the other extreme there are those who do not trust themselves but trust their juniors completely. They delegate all their work and go about doing practically nothing. They will, nevertheless, be present in office until everyone leaves so that their enviable style of working will always remain a best kept secret. How do they kill their abundantly surplus time?? They devise all sorts of ingenious methods. Presiding over or participating in endless meetings is a time-tested trick. Meetings are now referred to as training sessions, presentations, seminars, workshops and so on. Whatever the nomenclature, they serve the purpose of the wandering late worker by consuming his surplus time. The worst part of these workshops is that they take away a lot of time of the productive employees too. Sometimes, to keep the subordinates engaged, the inefficient senior makes them do dummy projects without saying so, or ask them to submit several lengthy reports on work already done.

In today’s IT-enabled environment, working late within one’s office is not always necessary. For the Chief Executive and other senior executives, there is no such thing as ‘working hours’ as they have to be available on call on a 24/7 basis. In the case of the lower-rung executive too, he can work from home or anywhere else — while on the move too. Even team assignments can now be carried out by persons sitting at different places. That being the environment now, regularly working late in one’s seat in office has become practically unnecessary. Not surprisingly, a few organisations have started discouraging late working — disabling computer servers, ordering closure of offices and switching off of mains at a specific time to push out die-hard late sitters.

Having thought of some of the aspects of late working one can only warn both individuals who work late, and organisations that encourage employees working late, to determine whether the late working is really necessary, productive and economical. If it is not, then trying to merely create an image through late working will not be rewarding in the long run.

Simplification of Tax Laws and the Lion’s Den

Light Elements

Once upon a time, the Indian Finance Minister lost his way
and found himself in a dense jungle just before presenting the union budget in
parliament. Perhaps, while mulling over how to boost tax collection, one way or
the other, he lost his way. Anyway, he kept strolling through the jungle,
holding the draft finance Bill and New Tax Code in his arms. Suddenly he
realized somebody was following him. He looked back over his shoulder. Oh, it
was a jackal– the most cunning animal of the jungle; the protagonist of most
Aesop’s fables we’ve heard during our childhood. Both the minister and the
jackal stopped short of each other. It was the jackal who broke the silence,
leading the conversation. “Hey! Hello Finmin, how are you?” “Fine”, answered the
Finmin with a heavy tone.

After swapping information as to the general state of affairs
in their respective personal lives (I mean—how are you? how is your health? How
is your family?, etc, the jackal fired an impromptu salvo which made the Finmin
shudder. “How is the economy?”he asked. “Oh, better than other developing
countries,” mumbled the Finmin. “But not up to the mark?” questioned the jackal.
“You know there is recession in the world and we are not an exception,” retorted
the Finmin, looking at the ground (rather ground realities maybe). “I heard the
prices of essential goods such as food grains and vegetables are on the rise
with every passing day, after your party assumed power at the centre, making the
aam aadmi’s life miserable,” was the next salvo fired by the jackal.

The Finmin shifted awkwardly in a clumsy attempt to avoid the
jackal’s penetrating eyes. He seemed to be struggling to find a convincing
enough answer. Looking at him fumbling, the jackal promptly changed the subject
and started discussing other matters like growing terrorism, global warming,
decline in population of wild animals, population explosion, falling moral
standards, etc. Having exhausted all topics of mutual interest, it was the
jackal’s turn to fidget. So he decided to march onwards on his original mission
to meet the King of the jungle. “So it was nice seeing you Finmin. Take care of
the economy and have a nice budget session in parliament. It’s time for me to
leave now,” said the jackal. As he walked ahead, he heard the Finmin call out, “Jackalbhai,
jackalbhai, just a moment”. So he retraced his steps hurriedly. “What’s the
matter, Finmin?”, he asked. “Actually, me and my predecessors have been obsessed
with one issue,” said the Finmin. “What is it?”, asked the jackal. “How to boost
tax collection,” finally the Finmin blurted out.

“Oh, a most interesting issue. Once upon a time, the king of
our jungle, I mean, the Lion, was facing a similar kind of problem. One day, I
called on the king in his den located at a high altitude, at his request.
Somehow I managed to get there after several bruises on my body. I fumbled a
number of times on the rocks on the way to the den. It was quite a bumpy path to
tread. When I climbed half way, I even thought of postponing the visit to some
other day and as soon as I turned back, I heard the Lion roar. I climbed back. I
felt like riding on the high tide when eventually I reached the den. The king
asked me to enter his den. It was difficult entering the den and the den wasn’t
big enough to accommodate more than two or three persons. Well, the king
narrated his problem. He had become old and he was starving. Old age meant he
could not hunt as frequently as he used to earlier. Not a single animal, big or
small, had appeared in his area since quite some time. He asked me how to get to
the prey.

I thought for a while and then came up with the solution,
which was based on my own experience of reaching the den. I first told the king
that he should change the location of his den, making it neither too high nor
too low. I meant his den should be located ideally so that he could keep a watch
on possible prey without being seen. Around the den, there should be sufficient
flat land on which grass can grow. The opening of the den should be wide enough
plus it should be sufficiently deep inside so that if an animal enters
reluctantly, the king can capture him effortlessly.

I explained to the king the reasoning behind this arrangement
of the den. If the den was located at a reasonable height from the ground, one
might be tempted to venture there. Green grass, being a favorite fodder for
small animals, it would attract them into his den.

He understood my strategy, “simple and easy access with some
attraction keeping the prey engaged for a while so that he could attack the prey
easily”. The king thanked me from the bottom of his heart. Thereafter, he
changed the location of his den as suggested by me and started living retired
life comfortably.

“So Finmin, the moral of the story is that you should evolve
simple tax compliance procedures, particularly about tax collection matters.
Your existing procedures are like the erstwhile den of the king. So, you have
been starving for tax collection…”

levitra

Odd man in

Light Elements

One should not have any objection to the politician, [I mean
minister, mayor, sarpanch (why not ?), leader of the opposition either ex or
existing or any other political personality] being invited for inaugurating a
conference wherein professionals deliberate upon some aspects of ‘legislation’
made by them. Of course they represent ‘us’, the people of this country.
Ironically, more often than not their standing in the public life is a cause of
concern for the intellectuals. Normally, they assume any crowd be it
intellectual or non-intellectual as their potential vote bank. Most of the time
they try to score out their political opponents through their speeches. They are
always in election mood. But the organisers have different perspective. They
feel that the conference should be inaugurated at the auspicious hands of that
political figure.

While giving a brief profile of the owner of the auspicious
hands, sometimes the overenthusiastic organiser makes us feel ‘unlucky’ by
disclosing the fact that he, I mean that political figure, had the ambition of
becoming CA, but alas he is a mayor, minister or somebody politically worth at
the given point of time . Here the organiser gains loud “laugh” [not applause]
in the auditorium. But the organiser does not stop here. He begins ‘sheroshayari’
in Hindi, the national language, to appease the political figure. I think the
trait of appeasement runs through the blood of Indians.

For them it is prestigious to get the conference inaugurated
at the ‘auspicious’ hands of a ‘political figure’. Fine enough up to this stage,
but when the organisers dare the audience to listen to the speech through the
‘auspicious’ mouth of the political figure, it’s a nightmare.

Recently I happened to be a participant in a conference held
in the metro city, where I heard this speech of the political figure. I
reproduce some funny statements made by him after thanking the dozens of
dignitaries on the dais :

“So this conference is organised by so and so (name of the
city) chartered accountants’ ‘firm’ (the conference was organised by the
branch of the Institute). The firm has done very good job for the benefit of
all coming from different parts of the country. [in fact audience consisted of
local members of the Institute and faculty were from the different parts of
the country right from Delhi to Kanyakumari] This conference is held at the
right time to know how to deal with global recession [I was floored, since the
faculty were supposed to deal with Income Tax law which has no connection with
global recession]. Chartered accountants render great service to the society.
They help us to file our return of income under income tax. They guide us how
to borrow from the banks. They are the backbone of Indian economy. They are
agents of the Government of India. I promise to give any help to them. I wish
them great success and great future. I once again thank the organisers for
inviting me to inaugurate this conference. (note that this statement was made
intermittently throughout the speech) . . . . .”


Peculiarity of Indian politicians is that they never
attend any function without ‘slogan shouting squad’, I mean supporters because
of fear of ‘protesters’. Normally they attend the function as late as they
could. Nowadays there is a display of high security exercise by the police
department, like sniffer dogs, security check from toe to head, police personnel
holding sten-guns, cavalcade of cars topped with red lights. If you ask what
threat you would perceive from professionals like us, you are scoffed at by
saying, “We are helpless, it’s routine security matters”.

At the end of the day you have to accept the ‘odd man in’.

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Vote for nothing ?

Light Elements

Herambh Shastri (name imaginary) a qualified chartered
accountant has a neighbour called Kushabhau. Among many other things, generally
you cannot decide who your neighbour would be. Reason for this statement,
Kushabhau in his fifties is a school drop-out, works in a factory, and who
happens to be a neighbour of CA Herambh Shastri. Kushabhau though illiterate is
an ardent believer in casting his vote in elections, be it Lok Sabha, Vidhan
Sabha, Corporation or housing society elections, I mean any election. On the
contrary Herambh Shastri is very allergic to voting. On the day of voting he
prefers to go on a pleasure trip. In recently concluded Lok Sabha elections
Kushabhau succeeded to persuade Herambh to cast his vote. How did it happen ?
Herambh being a qualified person, Kushabhau used to address him as ‘Sir’.

“Sir, why don’t you cast your vote ?” asked Kushabhau.

    “What is the use of it, it goes to dogs”, Herambh responded.

    “You mean elected representatives are dogs ?” Kushabhau.

    “What else are they ? they fight for power to rule like dogs fight for piece of bread”, said Herambh with angry overtone.

    “Sir, without elected representatives we cannot have a government”, Kushabhau’s simple point of view.

    “Kushabhau, look at the past records of candidates contesting elections, either they are corrupt or criminals”, Herambh.

    “I fully agree with you. Out of 540 members of the Parliament, a few of them may have criminal or corrupt records but that does not mean you boycott voting. I firmly believe and you would also agree with me, keeping in view the recent trend in our country that tainted politician gets exposed over a period of time automatically through public protest, print and electronic media and finally judicial system even if he is or was the Prime Minister of this country,” said Kushabhau.

    “Okay Kushabhau, I accept your view about individuals but the way the political parties conduct themselves is quite disgusting. They scramble for power. Most of the time they resort to unethical practices of horse-trading, defections, blackmailing, coalitions of political convenience or anything which is beyond the imagination of you and me just to grab the power”.

    “Sir, you are right the political parties fight to grab the power to rule this country. But they still believe in ‘democratic elections’ to acquire that power unlike Maoist or Naxalities or militant groups operating in some countries. So we are fortunate enough to have ‘government’ elected by the people for the people and of the people. Further, what else can you expect in this country with ‘diversity’ in electorate in terms of caste, creed, colour, so many states, haves and have-nots, rich and poor, literate and illiterate. Plus so called leaders are mushrooming in every layer of society trying to create their own vote banks. Still we manage to hold elections and get the government since our independence in 1947, three cheers to the Election Commission and Indian democracy ! In recent times this diversity is growing by leaps and bounds. No one gets clear majority. Majority is being hacked by regional parties with regional interest. Thus decision to caste vote to a particular candidate or political party is being influenced by diverse considerations. But unlike you they at least exercise their franchise to vote, whoever may be the candidate, or political party, whatever may be the record of the candidate or party. That’s the essence of democracy. You get the ‘government’ may be of coalition of political parties fighting to grab the power as you said. Sir, think of the country without ‘government’. We will be like Palestine, ‘a state without government’ and struggling for its existence. You know their leader Yassar Arafat was called ‘a statesman without state’. We are fortunate enough to have a government elected by the people. You should say thanks to those electorate who cast their vote and give you and me a government to protect and maintain the sovereignty of this country in the world, though it may not be of your choice.”

Sir, can’t you spare just half an hour to cast your vote and
then go on your pleasure trip ? It is the only thing you and I can do for our
country.”

Herambh Shastri shook his head nervously and put his hand on
the shoulder of Kushabhau and vowed.

“Kushabhau I will cast my vote tomorrow along with you and then both of us
will go on the pleasure trip, OK, Jai Hind”.

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S. 80IB and the parrot

Light Elements

It so happened, the learned faculty having explained the
niceties on the wall, off the wall between the lines and the sidelines as to the
provisions of S. 80IB(10) dealing with 100% deduction of the profits derived
from the housing project, the learned faculty vehemently emphasised that in
order to avail the deduction, the builder must obtain ‘completion certificate’
from the local authority, and to make his point of view bearable, he cited
precedents of honorable courts as usual. The faculty was about to leave the
podium.


“Excuse me Sir, “confused members of audience about
completion certificate stood up one after another.

‘Yes’ the faculty turned back to the podium with a creased
face. He was very shrewd and declared that he was anticipating queries from the
audience on ‘requirement of obtaining completion certificate from the local
authority’.

“My dear friends, feel free to raise your questions, I will
hear all your questions first, then I will reply at the end.”

A cascade of questions burst in the auditorium, some
practical, some theoretical, some hypothetical, I mean depending upon the IQ
level of the member.

“Sir, what if the project is completed 100% and all units are
sold, but the builder could not obtain the completion certificate from the local
authority within the time limit ?”

“Sir, it appears that the legislative intention is not to
promote housing industry, but to encourage compliance under housing development
laws of the local authority. If completion certificate is mandatory, how do you
react to this ?”

“Sir, what if the builder has received the entire sale
price of all units in the project, but could not obtain completion certificate
from the local authority ?”

“Sir, whether deduction u/s.80IB(10) is qua ‘profit’ derived
from the housing project or qua ‘completion certificate’ of the housing project
from the local authority ?”

“Sir, what if the builder obtains ‘provisional’ completion
for the housing project on hand whether he is eligible to claim deduction
u/s.80IB(10) ?”

“Sir, what if the builder succeeds to obtain part completion
from the local authority within the time limit, whether he can claim the
proportionate deduction ?”

“Sir, deduction u/s.80IB(10) being benevolent provision, is
there a possibility that the Court will take lenient view relaxing the rigor of
obtaining the completion certificate from local authority ?”

“Sir, what if the builder proves with documentary evidence
that he has complied with all statutory formalities for obtaining “completion
certificate” from the local authority, but he fails to obtain completion
certificate within time limit but obtains it within a few days after a deadline,
whether he is eligible to claim deduction u/s.80IB(10) ?”

Having heard all these questions one by one, the learned
faculty began to reply :

“Friends, I hope all of us are aware of a story told by our
grandmother or grandfather in our childhood. I am going to refresh your memory
about that story. It is about a cruel magician who captures a beautiful princess
who was in love with a prince. The prince fights with the magician to free the
princess. But he could not kill the magician, for simple reason that the
magician had stored his ‘soul’ in a parrot beyond seven seas. If the prince
could kill that parrot, the magician would die instantaneously. And the prince
kills the parrot beyond the seven seas and the magician dies. Thus he liberates
his princess from the custody of the magician. So my dear friends, if you wish
to have ‘princess’ I mean 100% deduction u/s.80IB(10), you must capture the
‘parrot’, I mean completion certificate from the local authority.”

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Astrologer’s day

Light Element

That day CA Herambha Shastri (name imaginary) met me not with
‘Income Tax Ready Reckoner’ (Bhagwad Gita or Bible of majority of professionals)
but books on ‘astrology’. I thought Herambha in his fifties unable to cope with
too much ‘technicalities’ in the profession, I mean e-return, e-tds, e-payment,
etc., might be thinking of a diversion. Anyway, we greeted each other.

“How are you Herambha ?” asked I, looking at the ‘books’ in
his armpit.

“Very fine !” replied Herambha.

Before I posed the next question, Herambha began to smile.

” What happened my dear friend ?” asked I.

” I suspect you are going to ask about these books” said
Herambha.

“That’s true” said I.

“Believe me there is very close connection between income-tax
practice and astrology” — Herambha.

“Something amazing, tell me how ?” I exclaimed.

“How ! My dear friend, at times, our clients pose questions
which could be answered only with the help of astrology. I can cite innumerable
questions of that kind. I hope you have time, listen.

“When will I get my refund order ?” most favourite question
of the salaried class.

“Whether search or survey can be conducted on me ?” question
by a person having done everything to dodge taxes.

“Whether my case will be selected for scrutiny ?” question by
a person complying provisions of tax laws partially or wholly, but camouflaging
irregularities.

“Whether in coming budget the threshold limit will be
increased ?” question by a person always showing his income below threshold
limit.

“What if I show bogus income in my wife’s name to take
advantage of the threshold limit for female assessee. Will it be checked or
detected ?” a question by a romantic assessee.

“Will it be detected if I purchase any property out of
Maharashtra ?” question by an assessee having national network.

“What questions the Assessing Officer will raise in
connection with my scrutiny ?” first timer of scrutiny assessment.

“Whether the Assessing Officer will accept our submission ?”
assessee facing scrutiny.

“How much expenditure the Assessing Officer will disallow ?”

“What irregularities the AO will detect in my case ?”

“How much the AO will demand ?”

“Can we win in the appeal ?”

“When will the order be passed ?”

“When will I get PAN number or TAN number ?”

“Can there be amendment as to so and so Section ?”

You see, there are many more questions apart from the ones I
just listed. You may also be facing them in your practice, all hypothetical or
requiring ‘detection’ by the Income-tax Department, and mostly dependent on the
vagaries and exercise of discretionary powers of the AO, at times rubbish, which
our clients pose to us, we have no favorable answers within legal framework at
all; still we somehow answer or avoid them, not up to the mark. Finally the
clients having heard those unsavory answers from you, they open their general
knowledge, obviously about the working of the Income-tax Department :

“So and so person got his refund order within one month;”

“so and so person never caught by the Income-tax Department,
who is a non-filer or stop-filer;”

“so and so person showing his income in his wife’s name but
no enquiry for last twenty years;”

“so and so paper or TV channel says that threshold limit will
be increased;”

“so and so person shows bogus expenses not detected during
the course of scrutiny;”

so on and so forth . . . . . . You are floored flat.

My dear friend, eventually your client wants you to ‘predict’
whether a particular situation will arise in his case or not. So I called those
questions as ‘Star’ questions, since their answers, I mean predictions depend
upon the ‘stars’ of the client himself. Such prediction is possible only with
the help of astrology. I observed most of the clients believe in their destiny.
So my dear friend, I embarked upon studying ‘astrology’. Mind you, for that
matter I am going to ask my clients to furnish horoscopes along with tax
details,” Herambha concluded his long and erudite explanation.

At the spur of the moment, I saluted my dear friend CA Herambha Shastri for
his ingenuity.

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Alibaba Aur Chalis Chor

Light Elements

It is said that the scam largest in terms of magnitude is
unknown and still to happen. Why ? You can’t put limit to the human greed. Don’t
forget this gospel truth. In the recent past we heard about 2 G Spectrum scam,
the largest ever in the Indian economy which suggests that Indian economy is
growing by leaps and bounds. No problem. Then we had the CWG scam which showed
that it is just ‘a sport’ for people in power to indulge in corruption. People
out of power, media, public interest litigants and RTI activists, who should now
be recognised as ‘the Fifth Estate’ in the Indian democracy, act as ‘the
whistle-blowers’ for the people. Having heard about the magnitude and
high-profile persons involved in scams, our ears flood with spicy news and
piquant rumours of premature investigation results by various agencies right
from JPC, CAG, CBI to local police in an effort to bring the perpetrators of
scams to the justice. With the passage of time we all forget about those scams,
because we get instantly engrossed in fresh scams.

Be that as may be. Once I was deliberating these issues with
my friend Herambha Shastri a genius in his own right. As everyone does, he
condemned the corruption. However, he was more critical about bringing the
perpetrators of scams to justice. Why ? According to him the process of justice
was a mockery of justice itself. To prove his point of view he told me a very
interesting story.

Once upon a time, there was a gang of forty thieves headed by
Alibaba. All those forty thieves were loyal to Alibaba and to each other. Their
honesty and integrity was impeccable. It is said that people in the underworld
always operate and interact in ‘good faith’, since they have no written laws.
They would burgle houses indiscriminately at the wee hours, whatever they would
rob, would be contributed to the common kitty with Alibaba. Thereafter, Alibaba
would do its distribution according to the risk taken by each thief in burglary
operations. This practice went on for years together. They could not be
apprehended by the soldiers of the King.

One night Alibaba decided to target Radhanagari, the capital
city of the kingdom. They burgled a house and looted jewellery and valuable
articles. One of the thieves snatched a gold necklace from the lady of the
house. The lady shouted loudly. Some thieves overheard her shouting in the
commotion. In the hustle and bustle the thief’s mask slipped and he was face to
face with the lady. She saw his face clearly. The thief gave her an angry look.
Quickly the thief covered his face with mask and disappeared in the darkness of
the night, of course, with the gold necklace.

After this successful burglary the thieves returned to their
den. The next day the chief, Alibaba asked all the thieves to surrender the
booty on the table. The thief who had snatched the gold necklace decided not to
give the necklace. So he put few currency notes he had stolen on the table, but
not the necklace.

As Alibaba was observing the loot somebody whispered, what
about the gold necklace ? The whisper echoed in the den. Yes, somebody stole the
necklace, but it’s not being seen on the table. What happened to it ? The thief
who stole it also whispered the same doubt. Very cunning move indeed ! No one
could doubt him. Alibaba raised his voice, “Silence, silence, what’s the
matter ?” Dead silence fell in the den.

The cunning thief moved forward and declared, “Sardar, we
know somebody stole a gold necklace, but has not surrendered it”.

“Who is that traitor ?” Alibaba roared. Everyone was
squinting at each other with the million-dollar question in mind “Are you the
traitor ?” No one yielded. How to figure out the culprit ?

Alibaba was in deep thought. He hit on a very simple
solution. He ordered the cunning thief, as luck would have it, to revisit the
house they burgled the previous night and bring the lady to identify the
culprit.

The cunning thief after a couple of nights revisited the
house and kidnapped the lady and fled into the forest. Midway he halted his
horse, dismounted with the lady and removed his mask. The lady recognised him
immediately; he was the thief who had snatched her gold necklace. The lady was
scared and trembling. The thief said “I know, you saw me that night. You will be
asked to identify, who stole your gold necklace, but you will not identify me.
If you do identify me I warn you — I will slaughter your young son. Don’t even
glance at me when we reach the den”.

The lady was in utter confusion. It was a nightmare for her.
Still she gathered courage and asked the thief, “If your sardar threatens my
life if I fail to tell the truth, then what should I do ?”

The cunning thief thought over for a while and said, “In that
case you tell him that you could not see the face of the thief as it was covered
with the mask. We all cover our faces with masks during burglary. So you don’t
need to tell the truth and then I will not kill your son. But if you tell the
truth, Alibaba will not return the gold necklace, but you will lose your son. So
better not tell the truth. Is that clear to you ?”

Herambha Shastri stopped his narrative here. Looking at me curiously he said,
“I don’t need to tell the end of the story. But, think for yourself, who is
doing the justice in the story, think of what is being justified, think how the
culprit controls the process of justice, how the witness is being treated, and
how truth is sabotaged. That is why I say the whole process of justice itself is
a mockery of justice in the present scenario.”

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Appeal by Income-tax Act, 1961

LIGHT ELEMENTS

Dear Pranabda (Finance
Minister),

Recently you tabled Direct
Tax Code (popularly known as DTC which reminds me of DDT used for killing
mosquitoes) in the Parliament in August, 2010 when inflation was raining cats
and dogs outside. What a great achievement ! You’ve been the Finance Minister a
number of times. Your predecessors (like P. Chidambaram, the most innovative
Finance Minister we’ve ever had) and you have tinkered me, amended me,
simplified (?) me by adding or deleting sections, sub-sections, clauses,
sub-clauses, explanations, using all the alphabets and roman numbers available
on earth and what not through the finance bills and ordinances one after
another. Still you’re unhappy with me. I’ve been in service of the nation since
1961, nearly 50 years. I could have celebrated my golden jubilee in 2011. But
alas ! You’re trying to evict me from the Indian economy for no worthwhile
reasons in sight. That’s what I hear from economists (excluding our Prime
Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh), tax experts, chartered accountants,
industrialists, even laymen, etc. Believe me, I have everything you want. But
you’re deliberately ignoring it since you are a man of words. You want to leave
a mark on the annals of Indian economy. So it’s nothing but a prestige issue. I
wonder, is it not possible for you to achieve your avowed objective of
simplification through me, though your predecessors and you’ve kept simplifying
me for years together. Do you think with the introduction of my ‘step’ law, I
mean DTC, everything will be simple and easy ? Had it been so, why did you
revise the DTC before its birth ? My dear Pranabda, from my experience since
1961, I can say that income-tax law in India can never be simple, it’ll continue
to be complicated, be it me or DTC. Even you’ll agree with me, at least in
private if not openly. Look, the term ‘simplification’ is very illusory, it is
like a mirage. With the passage of time something that’s simple today becomes
complicated tomorrow. Moreover, on the one hand you talk about simplification
and on the other hand you introduce stringent anti-tax avoidance provisions to
make the life of taxpayers miserable and at the mercy of tax authorities with
powers to suspect (read as discretionary powers). Is it a way to simplify
income-tax law ? In fact, I’ve been more abused by tax authorities than by
taxpayers of this country.


Regarding withdrawal of various exemptions — a number of exemptions have been
phased out in the past. In fact, I am burdened with the number of redundant
sections, sub-sections, clauses, sub-clauses, and explanations for years now. I
didn’t utter a word.

My
dear Pranabda, eventually what you want is ‘tax’ on income. I heard that with
the introduction of DTC, revenue will go down substantially due to changes in
slabs in the initial years of DTC. Is it worth it ? When taxpayers are ready to
pay, why are you losing this revenue ? Your political party is voted to power by
‘aam adami’ and not by taxpayers. You must be aware that your party needs
official money for welfare schemes of the ‘aam adami’ to get re-elected and
govern this country. I urge you to let me continue. You’re committing a blunder.
People have already started criticising the DTC as my ‘clone’ or as old wine in
a new bottle and what not. I feel very sad.

So
my dear Pranabda, I earnestly request you to let me continue to serve this
country of millions. I’m capable of generating enough revenue for the
government. I won’t spare any tax dodger, be it a politician of your party or
opposition. You can make me as simple as you please. Give more discretionary
powers to tax authorities so that they can directly withdraw tax from the
taxpayer’s bank account apart from raids and surveys. I’m sure that I have
enough power to deal with economic offenders. If you find me inadequate on this
front, make me more stringent by introducing death penalty to economic
offenders. I don’t mind. Introduce ‘daily advance tax’ like a piggy collection
for corporate tax-payers, forget about MAT. Keep on reversing the decisions of
the Supreme Court and lower courts shielding the taxpayers by amending me from
time to time, I don’t mind.


Lastly let me celebrate the golden jubilee of my existence – 2011.

Jai Hind !

Yours faithfully,

Income-tax Act, 1961

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