Only now at the age of 23 years i come to realise the reason.
Two days ago i went and bought a pop-up toaster and came back home all happy about having to get some good bread and jam in the morning without having to light up the gas and go on to toss the bread over and over on the pan..
I got back from the office today and put a couple of slices in the toaster and off i wen to freshen up a bit. Five minutes later when i got back to my room, i see the toaster throwing up some smoke only to discover that the pop-up mechanism had failed to function and the bread kept getting heater and so did the filament.
I immediately took the toaster to the shop and asked him to repair it. While he was at it i remembered that i'd forgotten to collect the bill the other day, so i asked him to give me th bill.
He comes up with "you'll have to pay 12.5% tax to get a bill"... i argued with him on the reason for me to get proof of the fact that i bought the product from him and not from any other place lest he should deny having sold it to me at a later stage.
He stuck on to his argument and refused to give me the bill.
I was furious at his refusal to give me the bill and at my inablility to convince me otherwise. So i got back home and did a google on "consumer code India", only to discover that there exists no site where you can register your complaints regarding the consumer related problems and issues. or some page which lists the details of the specifications of VAT and othe taxes involved in purchase of various items. I'm surprised at what lack of information the country and its infrastructure suffers from. The government puts ads on the TV regarding the various benefits the consumer has and how the consumer code is benefitial to the consumer in resolving the issues.
When i had failed to get any information on the issue, I called up my dad to enquire about the same. He explained that Value Added Tax is what it is called and that the shopkeeper has to pay the tax when he documents the sale of any product from his shop. Now these shopkeepers charge the customers an amount equal to the tax and avoid paynig the taxes while still makin the same profit that they were making before the rule was applied.
Thus the rule only increases the consumer's burden and not change anything else. finally what i realise is that i pay tax on my income, on the water that i drink, on the food that i eat, on the road that i walk on, on the house that i live in, on the vehicles that i own and on all the commodities i own. The only thing i dont pay tax for the D*** i have and on the air that i breathe. Bloody government that gives us middle class no choice but to live the same as we always have lived. you can hardly imagine going up the financial ladder working in such conditions.
No wonder people want to escape this bloody nation where half of your money goes in paying taxes and not one penny of all that money is used in the development of the nation or the improvement of the lives of the millions of poor dying on a daily basis.
Jai Ho!!! and India Shining!!! they say....
