But bro all these protesting farmers are rich

According to a 2012 RTI filing, there were 8 Lakh people with more than 1 Cr in Agriculture income, who paid ZERO taxes in India. [1] 1% farmers in India own more than 10 hectare of land. And, they are by no standards poor. And, as per a paper by the erstwhile Planning Commission, if we could tax even 0.04% richest farmers, it would generate 50,000 Cr of tax gains. [2] This money is enough to run the MGNREGA scheme for a year. This post is not against farmers. It is about getting the rich to pay their fair dues. [3] It doesn't make much sense why a normal corporate employee making 25K/month should be carrying the burden of taxes for Crorepati farmers. Widening the tax base would not hurt the government's revenues. And, it would improve the life of a normal tax payer. But, guess how many political parties are talking about it?

While the last 10+ years of Modi government has largely been to position India as a strategic uprising economy, there is no denying the fact that the Government to a large extent has failed in casting the tax net wide. 1. Yes the year on year tax collection has risen, yes the Consolidated fund of India has improved but even after 10 years of majority rule less than 10% India pays tax. 2. To top it all, looks like the government has taken middle class for a ride. 2.1. For a common man working you not only pay tax on income (this is ok!) but also on every time you spend and now even whatever little on can invest. Let’s first look at tax on Income. Your income tax can vary from 0% to 30%. - For a 30L income, almost 6L would just get wiped in taxes. This is an approximate figure don’t hang me with your CA rope. - For example, if your gross salary is 75L in India despite most standard deductions like 80c, Home loan, interest repayment and medical bills and insurance, a person pays 23L almost as income tax. 23L is a substantial amount & when paid for 5 years (every year) for a lot of us it can become meaningfully life changing. 2.2. Now let’s look at how much do you end up paying in taxes when you spend on goods and services. - - Almost everything has 5% GST. But if you really go line item by line item on all your monthly/ annual spends, your average GST payment would be almost 15%. Put it simply when you 87k as expenses you also pay additional 13k in GST. - - Also every other item would have cess & surcharges. > Case in point just look at airline ticket. Service fee would almost be 8%-15% of your base fare. > When you buy a house you pay the following fees, stamp charges, registration charges and obv we all know nothing happens in registrar offices without something going under the table. Also in case you buy via broker then his fee will also consist of GST at 18% (assuming he invoices his services). Continued in comments

https://youtu.be/z4ZQcUjRTGM?si=vjr2aLYn2blFjvpe

In a country of 140 crore people, only 6.77 crore file taxes, out of which only 20 lakh people pay taxes with income over 20 lakh. The income tax data collected shows only 1.7 lakh people reporting income of more than Rs 1 crore in a year. Yet luxury brands like BMW, Jaguar, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, and Maserati sell almost 35,000 cars every year. Also, 45 lakh people have incomes above Rs 10 lakh, but 25 lakh cars are bought every year. That only shows that tax evasion is soaring.

Inspite of so many "better than earlier govts" reforms in the last 10 years...the govt hasnt done much needed reforms in the income tax regime. The govt is doing a few good things like dissolving inept psu's, selling off entities like Air India (privatisation), etc. But when and how are we going to increase the tax base?? Why is govt failing to do so? It is high time we rationalise it. We cannot dream of becoming a prosperous country with such poor policies in place https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/pay-income-tax-be-political-orphans-why-it-matters-for-indias-economy/articleshow/107405605.cms