Note on celebration of Tax Freedom Day In the executive Committee meeting held on 26th June 2009 a proposal for celebration of Tax Freedom Day made by Mr. Govind Patwardhan Chairman State Taxation Committee was discussed. It is decided to organise a public meeting on 31st July 2009. The concept and background of Tax Freedom Day is given below. A meeting was held on 3rd July to decide the details of the programme. The tentative programme would be as follows : 1) Felicitation of 3 highest personal Income Tax payers in Pune City. 2) Discussion on Participants : Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Commissioner of Sales Tax & Commissioner of Excise, Eminent CA or Tax practitioner, One Industry Representative and one Eminent tax payer. The panel discussion would be followed by –Open House. 3) Addressed by chief guest. We intent to invite either Dr. Vijay Kelekar or Dr. Narendra Jadhav depending upon their availability. We welcome your ideas, views, suggestions. As the time is short you are requested to give your suggestions for making this event meaningful, interactive and successful as early as possible. “Tax payers’ Rights”
Concept and Background of Tax freedom day. Day & Date :- 31st July, 2009 Time :- 04.00 pm to 07.00 pm. Venue :- Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir , J M road, Pune 411004
When we pay Income tax we know how much tax we are paying. But when you buy any goods you are unaware of tax component in the price we pay. There are number of taxes which become part of cost of goods. Tax is levied on tax component. Thus the tax amount gets multiplied. Since citizens are unaware of tax they pay they seldom question the way the same are spend. When we hear the stories of squandering of public money at the hands of our representatives and the bureaucracy the honest tax paying citizen very often wonder why we pay taxes so honestly. Ordinary urban citizens are so
engrossed in meeting their professional, family and social commitments that they have lost capacity to question the Government. We neither have mechanism to air our grievances nor efficient redress system. There are sporadic attempts to air grievances. It is said that taxes are what we pay for civilisation. A good citizen is always ready to pay taxes which are reasonable. But the most dreaded thing in the life of every citizen is paying taxes. Not only because high rate of taxes but the way they are collected. The citizens do not feel any honour in contributing for civilisation. As citizens we must learn to demand the appropriate return on taxes we pay. By demanding proper security of men, material and property, better civil amenities and facilities etc. Do we really enjoy the freedom which is guaranteed by our constitution? Though now official data is available it is estimated that the average tax burden on citizen in India is 33%. In other words what one earns 1/3 rd of it he earns to pay taxes. Government has first charge and lien on your income for payment of taxes. Thus on yearly basis we can say that after first four months of the year we are free to spend the money we earn. This is what is called as tax freedom day. There are number of countries where tax freedom day is celebrated. Mahartta of Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture is serving the cause of businessmen and professional in many ways. This year we are celebrating 75th year i.e platinum jubilee. As a part of the celebration the Chamber has decided to observe tax freedom day on 31st July 2009. This is an attempt to create tax awareness. For Ddetails Contact :Ms.Kiran joshi OR Mr Ashok Budhkar Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries And Agriculture S B Road, Pune – 411016 Tel: ( 020) 25709182 / 25709171 Email : - kiranj@mcciapune.com / ashokb@mcciapune.com