SUNIL NEGI
The way heat is roaring up during the ongoing peak summers with the poor, lower middle class the worst suferer, the inflationary pressure has also grilled the already overburdened middle and lower middle class and those living at the lowest ebb of the society. Politics of caste consensus after the Indo Pak war of few days has infact diverted the people’s attention from the core issues. The inflation factor has reached new heights and the people of the country especially those living at the lowest ebb and lower middle class have almost compromised with inflation and it has become a common phenomena. If one calcucates the inflation during the last decade it has gone up by 12 to 15 percent and and the prices of essential commodities like flour, oil, pharmaceutical medicines, sugar, vegetables, clothes, shoes , electronic gadgets , all the consumable items, petrol, diesal, domestic Gas, electricity and school fees etc have gone up tremendously with GST and other forms of taxes piling up multiply on every item literally overburdening the already burdened countrymen ranging from middle classes to lower middle class to those residing at the lowest ebb struggling hard to meet the two ends meals. According to the latest news reports though it is being reported that the inflation has come down this year the fact of the matter is that the burden of GST and other form of taxes has adversely impacted a common man. The school fees have been continuously increasing for the last 15 years to the tune of ten to 15% and running cars of the roads are costing ten to twenty percent more expensive. The tax on the general public on almost every item in various formats have been increased and every item including eatables, consumables and other forms of usages have been multiple and badly taxed. The increase in children’s school fees which used to be four thousand ten to fifteen years ago has today been increased to 12 to 15 thousand. During the last five years there have been increase of forty to fifty percent in private school fees. And the donation, transportation, uniforms and stationery expenses have also been increased by 15 to 20% by the school managements. Running cars in the roads have cost expensive by 15% and all the banking services too have been made costly with the consumer suffering at every level. Even the flour, curd, milk etc the essential consumable items have been included under tax net with milk becoming costlier and beyond the reach of children of the lower middle class which is an essential and medically mandatory consumable items for children for their reasonably good health. The situation cumulatively is extremely worrisome. According to the senior leader of Congress, spokesman and former union minister Jairam Ramesh :
Under the self-proclaimed double engine government, the people of India are facing a double attack of sky rocketing inflation and rising taxes. Inflation and tax burden have increased continuously in the last ten years
Expenditure on medical and education has increased by 12–15% every year
School fees, books, uniforms – everything is expensive
Banks are charging fees even for small services
Tax on car, net banking, even fastag
GST on essential items like milk, curd and flour!
Income has not increased, but taxes and expenditure have broken the back of the people. Modi government should answer that how will the common people survive in this tax evasion and rampant inflation?
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