Cappuccino Musings

It was always believed that P.Chidambaram, known for architecting some of the best budgets, will not fail us this time. But horror struck everyone at the end of the budget when they realised that their own hard earned money is, well, not their own anymore.
Consider this scenario. You go to the ATM, punch in your pin and withdraw your money. Let me stress the word "your" here. If you thought things went on perfectly fine, and you can walk back home all smiles,I am afraid you are sadly mistaken. If you look closely behind your shoulders, you will see that our FM is watching you closely. The moment your withdrawal exceeds Rs.10,000, you have to shell out a 0.1% tax to the goverment. Just to stress my point, it is your money!
Mr. PC has given us a 2 point justification for such a ridiculous taxation. Encourage cheque based economy and keep a check on black money. A cheque based economy is highly unlikely to materialize in India due to sheer distrust between the retailer and the consumer. The next time you go and buy a TV, try paying it through a cheque. Chances are that you will be shown the door. One more factor that prevents us from moving to this kind of an economy is fear. How many of us really have the confidence to reveal our credit card information on the Internet?
Moreover, retailers always try luring the consumers into paying up with cash with incentives of discounts.
By taxing the money you withdraw, Mr.PC claims that he can keep a tab on black money. Everybody knows that all the unaccounted money is safely hidden in mattreesses, wardrobes and huge iron lockers. We need lot more stringent methods for tracking all the unaccounted money rather than tax the hapless salaried class.
Well, looks like nobody is laughing all the way to the bank. Atleast not the salaried middle class.