VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 199 Date: 01.05.2017
Contents:
1. Agriculturalists Should Pay Income Tax
2. The Tale of AAP Is One of Lost Opportunity
3. GTDC & GCZMA In Cahoots To Destroy Mandovi Riverside At Campal
4. Why Pick On Tourist Taxis?
Agriculturalists Should Pay Income Tax
Apart from the cow we have other Holy Cows in our society that we fear to touch. One of these is levying income tax on agriculture income. When everyone pays tax, why farmers should not pay income tax is all the more puzzling? It is not that all farmers need pay tax but at least the rich ones whose landholding crosses a certain figure of acreage should compulsorily be taxed. Taxing farmers is a political hot potato and that is where the government is hesitant to bringing them into the tax net. But if tax revenue needs to grow for developmental needs then taxing agricultural income is definitely the thing to do. The government is well aware which farmers are rich since when the last UPA government had granted the loan waivers amounting to some Rs. 60,000 crores, it was these rich farmers who availed the maximum benefits from the scheme, thanks to Sharad Pawar. It was stated then that farmers with small holdings are not part of the banking system and borrow most of their loans from village moneylenders and therefore could not be benefited. Thus if the rich farmers availed of benefits earlier including being not liable to income tax, it is time that that they shelled out income tax towards nation building as the current BJP government’s sloganeering tells us. Moreover we have the corporate sector getting more and more involved in the agricultural sector and there is no reason why we should allow then the freedom of paying tax on their farm incomes.
The Tale of AAP Is One of Lost Opportunity
For quite some time the writing has been on the wall for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The rout in the NDMC elections recently should be the final death knell for Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP's political ambitions. The AAP has been the wannabe, the perennial outsider in the country's political arena. Starting off with a lot of promise it has shown how political capital and public goodwill can be squandered so quickly and so nonchalantly. It is also management case history material of how Arvind Kejriwal and his cohorts within the AAP who claiming to be different commenced to conform with the rest of the political class so dramatically. From being the wind that promised to bring change into the country's political firmament, AAP succumbed to being overtaken first by the circumstance and then got swallowed in the same bog of political chicanery. Where after the landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, there was a need to consolidate the gains and strengthen the party, the AAP instead of that with the euphoric victory having gone to Arvind Kejriwal's head, he chose to expel some of the most competent in the party like Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav. That done the party 'supremo' chose to be surrounded by yes-men and lackeys and those with questionable credentials if not criminal records. Apart from that the constant feuding with the LG and the Central government showed that the AAP was not keen to govern but continue to question each and every thing in their old activist mode. Not only that by abdicating the role of Chief Minister to his deputy, Manish Sisodia, Arvind Kejriwal once again showed the reluctance of putting his head down and applying himself to the serious business of governance and continue playing around in adaptive RTI mode of finding fault to take potshots at the PM and getting involved in almost every other issue of national concern. This was part strategy to launch the AAP as a national party and lubricate Arvind Kejriwal's dreams of emerging as a candidate for the PM's chair come the 2019 General Elections. This had made him spend Rs. 97 crores of public money on advertisements to promote his image and that of AAP. The amateurish attempt for the AAP to go national has come a cropper after the debacles the party faced in the Punjab and Goa Assembly elections. With the disastrous showing in the Delhi municipal elections considered home base for AAP that has set the cat among the pigeons within the party hierarchy, the plan to contest seriously in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections must be in some doubt. All in all where Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP had to prove their mettle in Delhi to do justice to the public mandate given them and on that proven performance grow the party to go national, it has been a story of opportunity squandered. At this time it may not be inappropriate to recommend that the shutters be brought down on the AAP as a political outfit. From the whiff of fresh air and heady promise that Arvind Kejriwal brought to the political scenario in the country a few years ago to going out with their tails between the legs hangs a tale of personal overreach and the inability to tackle the entrenched political system and finally giving in to it irrespective of continuing to mouth high principles and values which are for others but not for AAP to follow. Arvind Kejriwal has admitted to making mistakes which admission is more in the nature of crocodile tears and to gain public sympathy. He has also said that he will introspect from which one should logically assume that his resignation as Chief Minister of Delhi will follow. This is expected if Arvind Kejriwal wishes to put in practice what he preaches and having lost the public mandate in Delhi he has no right to sit in the CM's chair. Or he can do like what other political parties do and that is to cling to the seat of power claiming that they have a 5 year mandate. Taking all things into account, one feels that it is time to say - AAP R.I.P.
GTDC & GCZMA In Cahoots To Destroy Mandovi Riverside At Campal
The two government agencies, GTDC (Goa Tourism Dev Corpn Ltd) and GCZMA (Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority), seem to be hand in glove in conspiring to avoid the coastal zone regulations and giving permission for the Grape Escapade festival to be held in Campal. Why activists are hounded who are just pointing out the law is something that defies reason? If GCZMA interprets the law properly and enforces it then there is no need for anyone to bring in last minute impediments to hold any event by going to the NGT is what the body should realise. They in any case need to explain why they gave permission to hold the Grape Escapade at the venue and then withdrew the clearance. GTDC will also have to elaborate how in the face of the NGT judgment to stop, they continued to hold the event. Not only that GTDC is seeking blanket clearance for holding tourism related events by the riverside at Campal. This is an irresponsible attitude for a State undertaking who rather than following the letter and spirit of the law is attempting to subvert it in zealously pursuing its charter.
Why Pick On Tourist Taxis?
We have the tourist taxis back in the news with their opposition to the app-based taxi services like that of Ola or Uber. This is something that they cannot avoid since such services are a sign of changing times and they will come in any case irrespective of the protests by the taxi associations. With Goa being a tourist destination and with business being skewed to season time between October to March and with everyone from hotels, restaurants and all linked with the tourism sector having one rate for off-season and another for season time and additionally peak season time during the three weeks from Dec 15 to Jan 7 encompassing Christmas and the New Year, the taxi associations can also demand that they should be allowed to charge market acceptable rates during the season times. If hotels are allowed to do this and nowadays under the plea of 'rate being on size' for sea food in restaurants round the year under which pretext they charge exorbitantly, why should taxi drivers be deprived from this benefit. The only thing that the tourist taxi drivers should do is be graceful and not fleece local Goans. Thus something like showing your id card to establish Goan residence allowing you to get a reasonable rate is something that can be thought of. The other thing that taxi drivers should not object to is tariff meters which has to come in any case. The season, peak season rates can then ride on this base rate of the tariff meters as multipliers which should satisfy everyone involved and connected with the taxi business in Goa.
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