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The pathetic state of the people

Posted in By Uddalok Sen 0 comments


I was watching a film with two of my very close acquaintances.This movie was about the Gujarat riots in 2002.The film showed how some fanatical Hindus were slaughtering the Muslims.The film went to some film festivals and also got a few critics awards for best film.At the end of the film, one of them remarked "The minority community(it is said that the Muslims are the minority community in India) is killed, so a film is made.Why don't they make a film about the killing of the Hindus?"The other added "Even if a film was made, it wouldn't have got the awards."

i just stared in awe...

Another day, I was giving a girl, 5 yrs junior to me a lecture about "civics"(I have not studied "civics" my whole life).It was not exactly a lecture, an informal discussion rather.The chapter was on "terrorism".I don't quite remember the exact context, but I remember that suddenly she remarked,"These Muslims should be beaten up and driven out of the country."

i could hardly believe my ears...

The preamble states that India is a secular country.

i do'nt think it is...

liquor and tax don't match

Posted in By Uddalok Sen 0 comments


Tangra, South Kolkata.The dimly lit streets & open sewers speak little of the more or less steady economy there.Once it was an area dotted with tanneries, owned by the Chinese community.The government has now moved those tanneries elsewhere, and restaurants and restaurants offering Chinese cuisine(rather,Calcuttan Chinese cuisine) has sprung up there.They are mostly owned by the owners of the erstwhile tanneries.
At the beginning,these restaurants were registered only as restaurants; although they served drinks if they were asked for.Now they have started acquiring license for a legal bar.The food is pretty good.However, that's not the reason of writing this.

The bills have two sections here, one as the "taxable amount", which comprises of the food and the non-alcoholic drinks; the other section is the "non-taxable amount" which comprises of the alcoholic drinks.In the first section tax has to be paid @ 12.5%, which is fixed by the government as Value Added Tax(VAT).The bills do not have the VAT number and still the authorities take VAT.This is a common scenario in allover Kolkata.

In the second section, no tax has to be paid.Moderately expensive liquors may be consumed, but still there's no tax for it.The government definitely knows about this, but they have done nothing so far.As a result, the government loses a heavy income on its part.This is really alarming.A certain number of liquor companies are also foreign ones, still there's no tax on them.

Franklin once mentioned that "Nothing is as sure in this world as death and taxes."As far as liquor consumption is considered, death is sure, but assurance about taxes cannot be given-as far as Tangra is considered.
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