On Friday, the government introduced a new cess on all taxable services. You have questions about it, understandably.
Do not worry. We have the answers.
1. What is this cess? Is it tax? Why you call it cess?
A cess is a tax on a tax you already pay. It is taxception. LOL.
2. How much is this cess you talk about?
You have to pay an extra 0.5% on the service tax you already pay.
3. Hawww? How can you do this? Why is the government hell-bent on looting the public?
Firstly, the cess is just 0.5%. That’s an extremely low percentage. Suppose you paid 60 rupees service tax on a bill of say 700 rupees at a restaurant.
The cess on this would be a measly 30 Paise – much lesser than the tip you leave with the waiter after you are done with your dinner.
4. I still think the government is cheating me!
The early estimates government expects to collect in the current remaining year is just 400 crores.
400 crores is loose change for our government, and doesn’t really make much of a difference if it gets it or not.
But that amount is a significant booster shot for an ambitious project like the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
5. Does this mean my locality is going to be sparkly clean from henceforth?
Probably not. It is not a sure shot cure. The government is gathering funds to bring a system into place that will efficiently dispose of all the garbage.
Remember how people cried when Narendra Modi took to the roads with a broom, saying – “Where will he put that kachra now? There is no waste disposal mechanism!”
These funds will be used to put them in place.
6. But will the funds be efficiently spent? Or will the corrupt people eat it too?
Once you pay a special tax – say an education cess, the money is allocated for education funds by the exchequer.
That means there is accountability involved now.
That means you can file an RTI application to know how the money was actually used. When you pay general taxes, you don’t really know how much goes where. It is usually decided by the government.
But here you can actually keep track of how the money collected is spent.
India needs to be clean – no one can dispute that and the present mechanism is not really working, is it?
And we have to start somewhere, don’t we? To have a focused effort towards cleanliness.
Maybe this step will be a good start.
We wish the government all the best.
We hope you are successful in starting to make the country cleaner.
News source
Cover image source