In his radio address to the country yesterday, Modi’s speech was full of Us (Have Nots) Vs Them (Haves) rhetoric:
Some excerpts:
But vices are so widespread and deep-rooted that even today there are people whose vicious habits refuse to die. Even now, some people think that they can re-introduce into the system, money from corruption, black money, unaccounted wealth and Benami money (money in unknown person’s name), using some route or the other. They seek illegal means to save their ill-gotten wealth.
The saddest part is that, for this too, they have chosen to misuse the poor, the underprivileged people. By misguiding the poor, enticing them through the vices of avarice and temptation, wrongfully pumping money into their bank accounts, or getting them to undertake some wrong activities, some people are trying to save their black money.
I want to tell such people today – whether you reform or not is up to you, whether you respect and follow the law or do otherwise is again up to you; of course, the law will take its own course to decide on the requisite action; but, for God’s sake, please do not play with the lives of poor people. Do not do anything that may bring the names of the poor on record for wrong reasons and land my dear poor people into trouble during the investigation later on account of your foul deeds.
And the law regarding Benami property that has been enacted and is being implemented is very stringent and it is going to be extremely tough on wrong doers. The government does not wish that our countrymen should face undue hardships.
On the basis of reports received from about 45-50 cities, I gathered that demonetisation had encouraged people there to pay their arrears accumulated due to non-payment of dues earlier; many people were in the habit of not making tax payments such as water tax, electricity bills, etc., they just did not pay.
Now all of us know very well that the poor people always like to clear their dues 2-3 days in advance. It is the well-off people, who do not pay their taxes and bills as they have higher connections and know that nobody is going to ask or do anything against them
Err…do we now have a new Hugo Chavez in town?
His socialist rhetoric makes me think that Long Term Cap Gains Taxes are on its way for Equity Markets.
4 replies on “Modi as Hugo Chavez”
He took oath telling that every decision of his will be done with keeping poorest of the poor in mind, many ignored it as a post election lip service but he was dead serious. If we were to look at all his actions from day 1, we can see that there is only one agenda, it is reforms – across ministries and across sectors. So, while you see a Chavez, i saw a maoist outfit poster comparing the PM to hitler ! Poor man, at the same time he has been compared to the eccentric monarch Tughlak, the dictator Hitler and the socialist Chavez !!
Capital gains tax was a reality till about a decade or so back, it coming back would not be a surprise as it is more or less the only gain in India that is not taxed over LT, in fact many in the financial services space are recommending a 3 year time frame instead of current 1 yr to avail of the LTCG benefit.
Last line is terrifying and scary to say the least.
It is a common knowledge that the revenue collection under STT is much higher than what Govt would have collected through taxing LTCG. At the same time, there is no scope for any litigation on this since it is straight forward and clear. While Govt may levy LTCG as prevailing earlier with a time frame of either 1 year or even 3 years (with indexation benefit), it will invite all kinds of litigation (as was happening earlier) as to the record keeping, interpretation and calculation based on each entry date of ‘acquisition’ , and at the same times, Govt would make less money than it is able to make today through STT.
If LTCG is re-introduced, will Long term Capital Loss be also available for set-off against investment in old companies that are no longer existent? What is/will be the recourse availabe in such cases? I’m sure LTCG cannot be re-introduced without also re-introducing the loss aspect!