Income Tax

I know, the title of this article will immediately push you in the world of finances and budgets. These are surely the buzzwords these days. But here is something, which is definitely related to money, but on a different note.

Around forty years back, when I brought my first earnings home, I was immediately asked by my parents to take out the “share of Bhagwan Ji”. This meant the share I must take out in the name of God. My first earnings was just rupees five. It was a scholarship I earned in a junior class, because of my academic performance. I abided with the instructions and took out rupee one, which was twenty percent of my earnings. When I started being a salaried professional, I gave some portion of my earnings to my mother to lend it to God’s share. On a lighter side I always used to call it the Income Tax, God is charging me for his services. Recently I was watching a TV show, where a noted ‘Tax Guru’ was also recommending to take out some percent in the name of God. He advised that, even when you are earning too low, a minimum of one percent of your annual earnings can easily be put to social welfare. I just worked it out on an entire country basis.

If I consider the per capita income published by UN for India to be true and take that value as one thousand five hundred seventy dollar/annum, a simple working gives that average saving per person for God’s share can easily be rupees one thousand per year. This is assuming if everyone saves just one percent of his income. To arrive what percent is this amount I just divided the total value saved by everyone with the total planned expenditure announced this year. This turns out to be a figure near seven percent of total expenditure. This could be a huge some if all this is put in social welfare. One may actually wonder the wisdom of our elders. A simple self imposed tax in the name of God’s share, can lead to quite a bit of chunk for social welfare purposes. I hope many of our readers are already saving something for helping others. Remember, in return of this Income tax, God also gives us good universal governance.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg