India Tax Payer wishes you a very Happy New Financial Year!

Dear Tax Payers,

India Tax Payer wishes all of its members, taxpayers, and other citizens, a happy New Financial Year!

Your Association, the India Tax Payer, has been a strong advocacy group in the last year as well. We sent in a number of petitions to various governments as we did in yesteryears. We had a few results coming in and we could see governments responding to our submissions with a positive frame of mind.

I am sure you will remember our ‘Yes to Carrots’ letter that we sent to the Finance Minister four years back. The government yielded to the chorus by issuing a certificate of recognition to the taxpayers! What we wanted was more positive ‘carrots’ and not certainly not ‘cudgels’.

We keep writing to the Finance Minister, CBDT, GST Council, and the Finance Ministry on providing identifiable cards and special treatments based on the card when the taxpayers visit government offices! Once the government introduces such an identifiable card to taxpayers, our members are ready to recognize them and give them special services.

We have also been writing to the Finance Ministry and to the Prime Minister to stop the propaganda on people not paying taxes. One, it reflects poorly on the administration’s capability, indirectly means that they are incapable of collecting taxes. Two, the truth is every citizen in this country is a taxpayer, either direct or indirect. And then there is the whole volume of money that is being collected on behalf of the citizens of the country, not as taxes but as concessionaire charges for mines, ports, etc.,

While on one side, we have taken up the cause of the individual taxpayer, we have also represented to the government, the numerous operational problems taxpayers are facing with the taxation systems. Duplication of PAN cards, for instance, plagues the taxpayers! As far as we know it is fixed and new duplicates do not arise.

Last two years we supported the government in its endeavor in fighting Covid-19. We contributed our might to the PM CARE fund and the Government of Tamil Nadu for Covid-19. During the floods in Kerala, we contributed to the Kerala Chief Minister’s fund. This is in line with our approach decided earlier during the Chennai and Cuddalore floods. During those floods, we found direct involvement in the field was really wasting the resources and that coordinated action is planned by the government and it is only right that we support their work, rather than do something tangential to its efforts.

Since then we have been contributing to the hardships of every state which faced natural calamities. Be it Orissa, Uttarakhand, Kerala, or Tamil Nadu, we contributed what we can and also collected funds from our members for the purpose. During Covid-19, we collected close to a lakh of rupees through Milaap, the crowdfunding app! Accounts will be submitted to the public in the month of May on the website.

This year we expect a more peaceful existence on the planet.

We have responded with interest to a number of requests from the Governments for public opinion and the opinion of the taxpayers, in particular. We represented our cause in this budget too. Expressed our opinions and thoughts and ideas to add to the budget-making exercise. We also submitted our thoughts to RBI for its monetary policymaking, to TNERC, CERC, IRDA, and many other government agencies when they are sought for.

Our thoughts have influenced decision-making. We have been quoted by many of these bodies while making decisions that influence millions of people in this country.

While I am happy about the year that passed by, we have another year unfolds. One more opportunity to work together and make our country a great place to live. I invite you to join the largest taxpayer movement in India with over 20,000 members we are growing from strength to strength. In two years, we have added more than 1000 members to our fold.

We look forward to playing a greater role in taking the thoughts of the people and that of the taxpayers to the government in days to come.

If you are not already a member of Indiataxpayers.org, join today at https://www.indiataxpayer.org

Please donate liberally for the cause of the taxpayers! It is important to monitor the money given to the government and ensure that the government spends on what they committed to spend.

Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Shantha Kumar

President