Precious Duty

It was just a routine budget declaration where the twist of the language is often practiced to give the impression that we are taxed less while a hole is nicely drilled into our wallets. The aspect of customs duty increase on Gold did not attract my attention until others pushed my head in that direction. ‘I should have got married before the budget’ my daughter cried one day. ‘Huh?’ I never knew she was in such a hurry. ‘Any boy I know?’ I asked fearfully about the affair that parents are always last to know. I braced for the worst as she said, ‘No-one special. I just wanted to get married so that you would not have to increase your marriage budget for me in the department of ornaments.’ Stunned with the unexpected answer, it took longer to comprehend her concern for her Daddy’s financial situation. ‘Full 100% rise in customs duty will raise the rate of 10 grams by around Rs. 200 according to the papers’ she educated me. I took her remark lightly and said, ‘As I am likely to shed a tear as I hand you over to your husband, I will shed another for the cost of your ornaments. So don’t change your whole life for some price of gold and end up with the wrong man in the hurry.’ A father’s lecture finally entered the conversation with a sprinkling of humour.

‘How come we have fish for the second time in the week?’ I asked my wife. Because of the recession, we had reduced the frequency of our non-veg menu days in the house. ‘The fisherwoman said the cost of her fish will reduce as her family boat has got some other side business.’ I wondered what side business a fishing boat can have in the course of fishing. My puzzlement must have reflected on my face as she dug her elbows in me and whispered to ensure our children did not over hear, ‘Gold smuggling has started again.’ I almost smacked my head in an attempt to clear the rust of honesty that even stopped me from realizing such obvious. Now I was happy that there is at least some supplier who passes on the benefit of lowering of cost and does not revel in his super profits at the expense of exploited consumers like me. My mind wandered like the documentary of the history channel to the fifties and sixties when gold smuggling in India was rampant. Everybody in the costal industry made tax-free money and built bungalows with scores of rooms that would put a hotel to shame. When that stopped due to parity of prices (lowering of customs duty) the poor guys boats had to be filled with the voluminous washing machines and televisions. Not only were they difficult to carry on landing but they also did not make sufficient margin per cubic centimeter as gold bars did earlier. I can imagine these people to rejoice the advent of their ‘golden’ period.

On the way to the office, I bumped into my neighbor who was currently struggling in his artificial jewellery manufacturing business. He did not have his usual grumpy face but possessed a carefree demeanor to the extent that I concluded he must have lost his mental stability due to work stress. ‘What is the good news bhai?’ I kept myself normal. ‘Did you not hear, the BGL line is raised so my market had widened!’ I knew BPL stood for below poverty line but BGL foxed me. He explained, ‘BGL means Below Gold Line means those people who cannot afford real gold. So these people are my market. By raising the duty…’ I raised my hand, ‘I know the rest. Congratulations.’ I wished him. Now I could see the future clearly that the handful car parking for guests in our building will be encroached upon by his cars purchased out of the super profits.
I was now beginning to see an antithesis of how increase in duty or tax actually creates wealth for the people in addition to the Government. I shook my head. All the rust in my head was making me think the scary logic that tax was good for the people and the more they paid, the more they earned. So is high taxes the ultimate win-win situation? That surely must have been the thought of the Finance minister when in the early seventies the marginal rate of income tax was a whooping 98%. Why did we not see the logic then? Does liberlisation create such a great difference? While people around me were celebrating the impact of increase in Gold price due to Customs Duty, I grew depressed as none of the drops of fountain of possible benefits would ever fall on me.

My company economist played the role of a counselor as he heard my story over a cuppa. He smiled as if I overlooked an obvious advantage. ‘You forgot the savings you will have due to price reduction of your fish’ he reminded me. I was one up on him. ‘You always told me to look at the net effect as you look as the net profit of our company. So, I calculated the excess money I will have to shell out for my daughter’s wedding jewellery and to compensate that by the savings in fish, it will take 145 years as per my calculation.’ His face fell as he searched for some argument in his mind to counter mine. Then as an instant flash he blurted, ‘You will play the critical role of catalyst of the economy. All the money you will be spending will circulate in the economy and that is what Lord Keynes had advocated.’ Wow now I felt like superman on whose shoulder’s rested future of world economy. I could visualize popular news channels like BBC, CNN, Times Now, Headlines Today etc. all clamoring to ask me how I saved the world. But in a flash I realized that my economist friend who was now heading for the elevators had pulled a real fast one on me.