Saturday, October 25, 2008

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE (INDIA)

SAY YES TO SSS

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

We are proud to say that we have the maximum skilled / knowledgeable people in the age group of 20-40 years in the world. This was proclaimed many a time in the biz news section of many channels. So what happens to this highly productive nation after 30 years? We are heading to the years where we shall be the most populous in the world in the age group of 50-70 years during that period. One and all are invited to think proactively.

Look at the developed nations who have a social security system in place to take care of their senior citizens. They show their GRATITUDE IN THEIR ATTITUDE towards those who had served their nation in the yester years, to those who have carved a great nation for them to live in. We are developing into one such nation and should initiate such steps to show our respect to them and honor them in the most befitting way. The country should recognize and acknowledge the contribution of our elders by respecting and honoring them in addition to the already existing senior citizen schemes of discounted travel fares and income tax.

There are many senior citizens living miserably unable to make ends meet inspite of their healthy/wealthy living in their hay days. Some are not endowed with a vision for their own future, some made investments which did not give them any positive returns, some trusted their young ones and gave them all that they had and are left with nothing, some had their plans fail but still gave all that they had to build this nation - their children. They paid their taxes and contributed to the finances of the country.

There are some who say that there is no return for paying the income-tax. The country does many things which go unnoticed. I open my eyes and look around to see garbage being carried away in trucks, people sweeping the roads, doctors taking care of patients in govt hospitals, students going to their classes to become professionals (govt funded colleges),…………………………………………………………………………… so I take it that we got it.

The govt also undertakes relief programmes in many many areas including tasks like
- Airlifting (evacuation) of stranded people – inclg Kuwait.
- Pulse polio / Free health check ups / rural health development,
- Rojgar yojana ( I guess it amounts to quite a substantial amount )
- Rural education, educations for the elders, education for self help/ employment,
- Rajiv gruha kalpa,
- loan waiver to the farmers ……………………………….
- senior citizen act, 2007

To empower the elderly with security and freedom & encourage people to pay their taxes and widen the sphere of tax paying citizens, it is proposed to the Government of India to pass on the benefit of paying taxes and encourage more to pay their income taxes by:

PAY GOLDEN TAX RETURNS (OF THEIR INCOME TAX) i.e., PAY 1% OF THE TOTAL INCOME TAX PAID (INDEXATION TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT) BY AN ASSESSEE (TILL HE IS 60 YEARS OF AGE) TO CITIZENS ABOVE 60 YEARS OF AGE.
Eg: If an indian citizen pays at an average Rs.1 lakh (indexation taken into account) as I.Tax every year from an age of 21 yrs to 60 yrs (it totals to 40 lakhs), he is eligible for golden IT returns of Rs.40000/- p.a. i.e., Rs.3333/- p.m.

For this the Govt. of India has to set up Social Security Dept. to collect data from the Income Tax Dept and disburse the Golden Returns. Some of the suggestions from friends, relations and well wishers have been included in the write up presented above. My endeavor is to begin the process. Other major suggestions though not included in the proposal are:
1. An assessee gets automatically insured this year for 10 times the income tax he paid last year.
2. The golden returns should be atleast 6 % of the total I.Taxes one has paid in life time.