Its horrendous to the Middle Class Taxpayer.
First pay 20-30% of your income as Income tax. Save up for years managing House Loans, EMI's and plan a trip abroad. Spend 10L, give 2L to the Govt for what? Why should I give the Govt 20% loan of my hard earned money for 9 months? its absurd and no other country does this AFAIK. Get double taxed on Petrol, Car, Hotels in India, now they want to tax me abroad as well? No way this is justified
It's almost inherent that the kind of people who use credit cards file ITR as it is often required or common method to prove credit card eligibility.
We as forum users know credit card payments show up in TRACES and that IT notices happen depending on your usage, although most of these seemed to happen 3-5 years after the financial year in question which is a different issue altogether.
Also the FM minister highlighted mainly the issue of discrepancies between ITR and Credit Card spends, with what sounded was a very small minority which didn't actually file ITR. Also it's not like you can pay cash for your credit card spends so there's always *traces* when using credit cards. Probably where the name of that came from.
We pay loads of taxes from income to GST to electricity duty to excise duty and even custom duties on basically every single item that isn't made in India like your phone, laptop, clothes, etc has already attracted duties on import and that is reflected in the pricing.
India isn't a cheap country at all... if anything it is among the most expensive ones if you consume any imports some which are very common such as your clothes, watches, phones, nearly every electronic gadget, etc. Nearly any import is a lot more expensive than almost any other country. Look at your phone or laptops pricing overseas versus the cost in India, it can often be found at half the price or at very steep discounts in neighbouring countries.
And why is it more expensive?
All due to taxes.
Even most of the petrol prices we pay is mostly taxes. Not sure how true this article is but it says nearly 70% of the petrol prices we pay are taxes.
Excise duty on petrol has increased to ₹32.98 per litre and that on diesel to ₹31.83.The bulk of the price you pay for buying petrol and diesel goes to customs duties, excise duties and VAT
www.livemint.com
You get taxed at possibly every single point there is.
Then 20% TCS is a VERY steep amount and disproportionate when most other methods are charged 5% TCS.
Now pair that with the new tax regime which does take away with tax exemptions/benefits, and some of the new taxation charges and changes in areas like healthcare.
Now I feel like I'm wearing a tinfoil hat, but it looks like a tax snowball to me. It is BURDENSOME and UNFAIR for the middle class, and on these taxes we pay there's lack of substantial benefits (or next to none) and a lack of adequate public services, many are pathetic.
With all of that and the current state of corruption the last I'd want to do is pay more taxes. I see 0 tangible benefits on it for me and I'm certain that money is being pocketed in many different ways by people who shouldn't be having none of it with all the favouritism around and corruption.
One good example which exposed this was Adani-Hindenburg matter, which seems to have been forgotten and swept under the rug.
