A World of Thoughts

Not all countries are spinning down the path of recession because of Covid.  Of course, we know that China has long come out of the issue and has registered a growth in the second quarter onwards. Expected to grow at an annual growth rate of 2.1% this year, hitting a 44 year low in their growth rate! Australia registered a growth of 3.3% in the last quarter. It fell into a recession, pushed in by the Corona Virus, after nearly three decades! Found itself controlling the virus and jumping out of the recession quickly. People expect Australia to further move ahead and mark the year end with a sharp growth in its economy. World's third largest economy, read Japan, has also moved out of the recession in the last quarter of this year. Japan is leading the 'Zoom Boom' with an impressive 5.5% growth in the third quarter. Japan has just signed off world's biggest trade deal, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)! Only the previous quarter, Japan had its economy shr

 Two news items caught my eye today! On one side, the newspapers claimed that the GST collection has been going up consistently. For the second month in succession it said, the GST collections crossed 1 lakh crores of Indian Rupees! A welcome change from the dreary world of Covid. Industries seem to show a better turn and therefore, the article claimed the collection of GST has risen gradually and we are almost on par with Nov 2019! They also say that the increase in GST collections could be because of the festive season. People might have loosened their purse strings during this season to fill their homes with festive goodies. Well, that could explain this month's purchase but then it still cannot be the same as the previous year which did not see Covid! Maybe, after all, the country is turning up in the V curve! https://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/gst-revenue-at-104-lakh-crore-in-november/article33220851.ece?homepage=true On the other side, another article also caught my ey

@Thanks, Sify A welcome measure from the Government of India!   Something that taxpayers can feel good about. Let us make a list of what are the good things that can come out of it, if this scheme is implemented in the letter and spirit of what it says.   1.       One of the dirtiest words in tax collection is Harassment of taxpayer. A tax officer meets a taxpayer and goes through the accounts submitted by him. Identifies a mistake in the calculations. Bargains for personal gains and closes the case as all clear once his requirement is met. In most cases, the ‘mistake’ is more conceptual than real. A lay man could easily misinterpret the statutes while the officer whose job is to interpret the law, does so to his advantage, leaving out the spirit of the statute!   Most of these happen only when the officer meets the taxpayer in person and finds that the person is gullible. Identifies him as a source to meet his needs. When personal meetings do not happen, the chance that an officer cou

Introduction   Let us have a quick recap of the solar cell technology that we have studied earlier in our engineering courses so that we are able to make a well-informed decision while buying a solar power plant.   1954 was the year when the first solar cell was fabricated in the Bell Labs, which was the first practical solar cell made. Of course, over one hundred years had flown by since the invention of the photovoltaic effect in 1839 by the French scientist Edmond Becquerel. (Don’t confuse him with Henri Becquerel who won the Nobel on Radioactivity in the early twentieth century).   Since then, many developments have taken place so much so, there are many buildings sporting a solar panel, today.   Mono, Poly and Thin-film   Technology wise we can differentiate the panels as Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline and Thin-film. Monocrystalline is the case of silicon crystallized and made into a single bar. From this bar, slices of wafers are made and cut to the required size. In case of Po

There is a surprising shift towards solar power plants these days from consumers!   The shift is not sudden, though the reasons have presented themselves for a long time.   For obvious reasons, price of power purchased through the Distribution Companies such as TANGEDCO in Tamil Nadu or BESCOM in Bangalore, etc., seem to be at least 20% higher than from other sources. Commercial as well as industrial establishments started picking up private power during the massive power shortage years, 2010 to 2015.   Post 2015, the power shortage yielded place to power surplus. The result was that while during the power shortage years, consumers wanted power even if it meant paying a higher price. Today, they want to buy power for the simple reason that they are helping them save on the cost of production.    With Distribution companies playing truant and making life miserable for most of the private power companies using all the methods under their ambit, consumers had to look up alternate ways. Si

Elections come and go, every five years in India.  Be it Central or State, the tempo that it builds certainly reaches a crescendo as it nears the D Day and then falls flat for the next five years! Silent and unresponsive! Many a time, as tax payers, we have felt that the government should have been more responsive to our sufferings. More responsive to the way taxes are collected. Many times, we feel that so many different taxes continue to be collected by the local bodies, central and state governments in various forms and shapes. We spend a few people on the job of tax related work! Tax payment do the government continues to be a major exercise! Neither is the tax collection easy on our pocket; nor is it easy on our mind. There is always a pressure of filing returns every month for GST (3 reports to be exact) and the TDS payments. Now we have TCS payments too! Instead of simplifying tax payment procedures aren't we getting harangued continuously on some ground are other for tax re

 Government of India has been pushing the financial inclusion for a long time. With newer and newer policies coming out of their ministries, it becomes all the more imperative that the policies of the government reach the citizens. While India Tax Payer, an association of tax payers, has been an advocacy group to feed the government with the thoughts of the people. Vice versa is also true. That is, India Tax Payer has also been distributing the thoughts of the government to the people! With many a company running under the risk of shutting down and a whole crowd of individuals finding it difficult to counter the vagaries of the virus, it is important that the policies of the government are given a proper shine and presented to the citizens, to maximise both understanding as well as implementation. It is interesting to note that, in line with what has been happening across the world, GoI as well promoted a Center for inclusive learning, the National Centre for Financial Education. This