Simplified Laws Guide to Taxation and Legal Concern
It is not a typo error. There is no word called ‘complifying’ in the dictionary. I have combined two words complicating & simplifying into ‘complifying’. I am confused by the acts of Government. They speak a lot about simplifying the Acts by repealing or amending age-old Acts. But when they act, they are complicating the Acts. This position of the Government made me coin a new word called ‘Complifying Acts’
Wait, I am not blaming the present Government alone. Poor guys, they have just assumed office. But somehow I feel this Government is not walking the talk so far. They started with a good intent but it is not reflecting in the content of their actions (maybe it is too pre-matured to comment) and hence I combined these two words ‘content’ and ‘intent’ and made as ‘contIntent’.
I would like to give a couple of examples to substantiate the point of complifying Act and contintent.
Companies Act
One of the reasons for repealing the old Act of 1956 was that it was too elaborate and complex, (658 sections, something of the size of a pillow) and hence a new Act was brought in to simplify the rules (the new simplified law? Yes, something of the size of a baby pillow). But the new Act which is in force from April, 2014 has 470 Sections and over 370 rules. In addition to it, in the last 3 months they have brought about 96 notifications, circulars etc. (Something of the size of two pillows!!). I hope you will subscribe to my thoughts about ‘complifying acts’
In KBC program this question can be asked – Who is more involved in the affairs of private companies? Option (a) Promoters and owners (b) Financial Institutions (c) Employees (d) None of the above. The right answer is ‘None of the above’, because Government is more involved in the affairs of the company than the promoters. They will tell (and watch holding a stick in hand) how many times board of directors has to meet in a year, how much minimum time must be there between two meetings, how much money you have brought into the company, how much salary you have drawn, how much money you have to spend on social activity etc.
Self Attestation
Have you heard our PM talking about self attestation of documents? Is it a reality now? Let me give you one example. For incorporating a private limited company one has to notarize around 8 documents! All of you are aware that company incorporation does not come under State government’s purview. It is the Union government’s job. When our PM has announced umpteen number of times about ‘self attestation’, trusting the citizens of the country, why are the departments still insisting on Notarization? The gap between vision and action!
Budget proposals
When the government was talking about ‘Minimum government and Maximum governance’, we thought they will reduce government involvement in the affairs of private people. Now going by some of the new provisions mentioned in the Finance Bill, I am afraid that they are bringing back ‘Inspector Raj’ into the system.
The Government is talking about releasing Labour pain. They want to simplify the relevant laws and repeal irrelevant laws. They want to introduce Direct Tax code (DTC) and Goods and Service Tax (GST) laws (let’s call it as ‘Intent). Going by the track record, I don’t have any great expectations about a radical change in their approach (let’s call it as ‘content). Once again, this country will see a confused, halfhearted approach by the governments to solve the issues; it’s a contintent approach.
Thought for the day
Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.
