Cess is another word for tax or rather it is a sort of
surcharge (tax on tax).
Generally cess is levied when the authorities have to
extract funds and channelize the same to the desired areas so that the benefit accrues
to the intended extent.
The BEST (the state approved transport provider for
Mumbai region) during the 1971 war with Pakistan at the behest of the Govt.
authorities enforced a cess of 5 Paisa on the existing ticket rate to finance
the war operations and support the Indian Army. The People didn’t object to the
levy as it was in the Country’s interest. The 1971 war ended in a mere 17 days.
Forty one years has passed and the cess is still in force and ironically it has
been hiked arbitrarily to 15 paisa and no questions have been asked so far about
this as the amount seems miniscule. Multiply this by the lakhs of daily
passengers and the no. of years and you would be gazing at an astronomical
figure.
The service tax was introduced in the year 1994 in India
and service providers were bought within its ambit to mop up additional and
substantial revenue. The Service providers shifted this tax on the buyers of
the service and the rate was fixed initially@10%. This rate has shifted up and
down by a couple of percentage points as per the whims and fancies of the
successive finance ministers.
A surcharge on Service ax followed as the additional cess
was collected in the name of ‘’funding’’ education across the country.
No one is aware, where and how the cess collected in the
name of education is allocated? The interesting part here to note is while the
allocation part of the budget is on the downside yet the earnings for the Govt.
through such wily taxation policies is steadily increasing.
The Schools in the urban areas boasts some of the most
modern facilities though the same is ostensibly limited to the elite few who
can afford the luxury of being able to squeeze in, courtesy of they being born
with a Silver Spoon. These Urban Schools indulges in providing ’’ VIRTUAL
EDUCATION’’ to its students while the rural folks have to bear with
the VIRTUAL ‘’disappearance’’ of the teachers (though they manage to get full
salaries), ill-lit roofless classrooms, filthy and stinking toilets and
dilapidated benches.
The Mid- day meal schemes for school children launched amid
great fanfare has failed to live up to its expectations with Children being fed
with inferior quality grains and on some occasions superior grade grains have
been siphoned off to lucrative counters.
Despite the collection in cess in various sectors no one
has witnessed any marked improvement which provides testimony to the misappropriation
and rampant embezzlement that has been taking place on account of the levy
because of the unaccountability factor associated with it.
Some of the
Cess collected in our Country from various sources sounds bizarre :
1)Cess on Coffee
/Coffee act 1942
This cess is charged towards development of Coffee
boards.
2)Cess on dried
copra/Copra cess Act 1979
This Cess is charged towards development of Coconut
industry.
3)Cess on Jute
/Jute mfg Cess Act 1983
This cess goes towards developing the Jute industry.
4)Cess on Sugar
/Sugar Cess Act 1982
This too goes towards developing the Sugar Industry. I am
surprised that the SUGAR industry is yet getting developed. The Sugar lobby in
the western Maharashtra region which controls the sugar pricing for the Indian
Union is too affluent, modernized.
5)Cess on
Coal/Coal mining Act 1974
The cess would be
solely utilized to improve the safety of mines and conservation of the depleting
Coal
reserves.
To sum up, the levying of cess has outlived its meaning
and the documentation part which is required to show the records of the sum
collected and apportioned eats into the funds because of surging overheads
associated with the upkeep.
The intention of publishing this is to make people aware
of the nefarious ways in which huge sums are collected from the nonchalant tax
payers with the sole intention of harassing them and fulfilling their own sly
desires.
I would like to express my token thanks to my friend and
Colleague Nihal for providing me with inputs, relating to the wrong application
of cess and particularly the mess in the education policies in our Country.
