I Among Expenses, Corruption and Tax
They say I am economical when it comes to the use of words to put a valid argument forth. It is no surprise coming from a nation such as ours. We waste a lot of what we earn, and by earn in most of the cases I mean, swindle off of our parents. We use our money, most of the times, to buy clothes, to go to cafes and to have dinners with girlfriends, who we are not gonna hear from in the course of time. To have fun is a human right, in my opinion although not endorsed by NGOs and human rights organizations, it is a right. So how do we define fun, for a teenage boy, the definition can be from a to buying the newest gamecard available in the market to going to Muree for a few days, once a month.
Have you a savings account where you regularly make transactions and have started saving money, even if you are less than 22 and live on the family business, if you have then my humblest salutations, you in my eyes are a qualified person and a philosopher if I may be allowed to add, for in these days when vanity is the biggest idol in humanity’s temple you have persevered the urge to spend recklessly. You have not given in to spending that Hundred Rupee note, and instead saving it in the side of your wallet. You Sir! Are a unique case for I have seldom seen such a farsighted person.
Why am I making a point like this at the expense of general wincing and the retort that hangs ballatantly on the tip of your nose? Beleive me, I have heard many times people complaining and regretting that they were at a certain point in their life careless when it came to monetary affairs. They trusted the wife too much, the children too much, and things would have been quite diffferent had the person been austere in his spendings. I do not want you to be a miser, act like you are poor when you have the resources, because that would be hypocrisy. It is also hypocrisy, if one is willing to waste his hard earned rupee on show and pomp but not in paying taxes and fines and utility bills. So what I am actually saying is just be weary, as they say, Bad time does not send a formal note before descending on your happy little life.
Spend where is needed, take pride in the fact that you pay the most tax in you county, your area, your city, for it is Allah Almighty’s benevolence that has given you that much money. Take pride if it is your money that is being used to make roads and schools, be proud that without the burden of a good deed hanging from your neck waiting to show itself in an act of show and pomp, in an unassuming manner, that you may not even recognize, is far less impressive than the bridge built on your tax money, the road made out of your tax money, the widow given a week’s supplies are coming from your tax money. To those who do, I’d say you are a rare breed too. If you can take pride in anything, let it not be the purity or the blue hue of your blood, but the good deeds that will benefit you in this world and in the hereafter. Do not make an excuse that the handlers of tax, that the government is corrupt, because money paid with good intention will surely meet its end that is aptly going to be good. Not all tax collectors are bad, so imagine that out of the rare breed of tax payers, your tax was collected and saved by an equally rare breed of honest officials. Be honest, because good begets bought but good!
The system might be wrong, it might be twisted, it might be exploitative but this does not excuse us from the duty of paying our taxes in full. In government of Punjab, many cases of honesty and bravery that usually go un-noticed. Anti-corruption department is more astute and clean than you think it is.
This shows examples of a few cases that resonate the victory of law over dishonesty and malpractice.
Filing a corruption complaint is easy as cake. But if you want to get the FIR filed not through proper channel but want to be treated like a royalty then do not blame the system because you are helping it to become corrupt by the second. Know the law, research and study how things work in the courts and appeals. Try to be honest and there is always the supreme court. I have seen many people who want unlawful favours and then when they pay for such favours, they blame the Police and such departments of bring corrupt.
Corruption is not a distant phenomena, it starts with you. If someone is trying to use you for monetary gains and does not assist you unlawful matters, then get back to the basterd by filing a complaint in the Anti-corruption department. Such complaints render the man OSD, officer on special duty known as “Khudday line” in Punjabi. In such circumstances, the person’s pay and other facilities are suspended until the inquiry against him does not come to an end, and he will then curse the day he tried to ask you for bribe or gifts of any kind. Such is the way to deal with such blots in the face of the society.
“Corruption has never been compulsory!”
-Anthony Eden.
