Are taxes a fair way for the Government to earn money?

 'Political freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie, and the workers want no lying' as correctly stated by Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin. We are said to be born free, but are we? We pay taxes to continue living in this country without any hindrance because if we don't pay them, we are put behind bars. Is this the financial equality promised by the government?

To begin with, what are taxes? Taxes are mandatory contributions levied on citizens and corporations of a country by the government, be it local, regional, or national. We, the public, are told that the taxes finance government activities and public welfare services such as roads and schools. But are they being used for these purposes in real life?

India has a long history of taxes, which started with the Mughal empire in the 1700s till date, but still, India lies in the list of countries with the lowest taxpayers. Despite India’s population of more than 8 million adults, only 1.5 million citizens pay taxes. That is because all the taxes are acquired from middle-class families. The middle class covers up for the taxes not paid by the rich and the poor. Annually we see schemes, subsidies, and concessions for poor and rich people, but what about the middle class?

The middle class is the most abused taxpayer in India. We pay taxes to the government for owning a car, or a house, buying clothes, buying food, for electricity, on income, and the list goes on. India is a country where a desk clerk earning 70,000 a month needs to be taxed while farmers and the poor enjoy a tax-free status. Even BJP MP Subramanian Swamy pitched for the abolition of income tax in India as it would increase the citizens' savings. If the government wants to charge taxes, then it should be fair that every earning adult in the country pays taxes, and they should remove unwanted taxes like entertainment tax, toll tax, and estate duty.



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