Elder's health issues - beware and be aware

All of us are more or less certain about two things namely advancing age and increasing taxes. We tend to see our elders slowly become aged, losing memory, mobility, confidence and degree by degree the ability to struggle with the tough game called life. We tend to presume that the battle is a long drawn one and we will be prepared to shoulder the responsibility when the need arises or rather we will cross the bridge when the river comes. I too was of the same opinion.

Little did I know that my Dad a person whose memory would astound his students when he recited the contents of entire books like a poem without much as a glance of the Chapter heading, would have difficulty in remembering my name.

The signs, the change in gait, the spoonerisms in figures such as hundred and thousands when he referred to money, slight lapses of memory were all discounted by me and the rest of my family as age related issues.

When the situation worsened and he had a fall too many, we went for a CT scan of the brain which revealed he has silently suffered more than a stroke. He's now on the slow painful road to recovery compounded by his advancing age and chronic diseases  like Diabetes and Blood Pressure.

Had we known earlier we could have started the treatment before the debilitating falls and associated pain. But we failed to understand the signs and symptoms.

I therefore implore you friends to please analyse any behavioral or physical changes in your near and dear senior citizens and take them to a good General Physician to diagnose the real cause behind their actions.

Further if you live away from them in another city, please do endeavor to develop a support system in case of emergency. I'm fortunate that my Cousins and my better half had become my support system during the times of crisis since I could not be around and I'm ever grateful for  their timely help. My father's friends also were real concerned and many of them visited him despite their own advanced  age. A few students of my Father also took their time to help out. I'm indebted to each one of them.

I sincerely hope none of your dear ones become afflicted but a little bit of precaution never hurt anyone.

Here comes the tax man

It is not often that the Government of the day has the opportunity to modify the entire indirect taxation structure and to toy with the idea of modifying the value chain to the extent of expecting to create a self-regulating  mechanism. India and NDA are at a cusp of such an event. The Goods and Services Tax is expected to be rolled out on July 1st and is expected to radically alter the base of taxation.
Earlier concepts of Manufacture, removal, sale, provision of service etc have been replaced with one concept of Supply.
Excise Duty, Service Tax, VAT have been subsumed and replaced by two levies namely Central GST and State GST. The tax rate for the entire country including Union Territories for a commodity would be the same. For Union Territories the tax will be CGST plus UTGST.  Taxation for Inter state transactions earlier governed by the Central Sales Tax would now be under Integrated GST but though there is a change in nomenclature there is no change in the rate on all occasions. It continues to be CGST plus SGST. This in one stroke irons out the wrinkles of different taxes for same commodity in different States.
Imports will also be considered as Interstate sales and charged IGST.

It also has  created a decision making body i.e. GST council whose Members are Finance Minister of India, Minister for State of Revenue, Finance Ministers of the 29 states and 2 union Territories with Legislature to further this legislation. All but 2 states (Orissa and West Bengal) have agreed to play along mainly convinced by the carrot in the form of assured compensation if Revenue falls short of revenues earned in 2015-16 (base year) at a CAGR of 14 percent. The funds for this shall also be taken from the system in the form of Cess on demerit goods. By keeping a vote share of 33 percent with itself and requiring 75 percent of votes for passing any resolution in the council, the Union enjoys a sort of Veto power on decisions though it alone cannot push through any reform without support of majority of States. This ensures that the major decisions are consensus decisions between States and Centre.
Another sweeping change of this legislation shall be the change in the retention of tax benefits in case of an interstate transaction. Earlier the supplying or manufacturing state retained the tax collected as CST but now the benefit flows to the consuming state guided by the destination based tax concept.
This is another radical departure from existing pattern and is expected to impact the traditionally manufacturing oriented states like Maharashtra and Tamilnadu. This impact will be partially offset by the revenues to State Government for the Services which were hitherto taboo for the State Governments to tax.
The previously high threshold limit of turnover to tax a manufacturer has been bought down to 20 lakh thus increasing the tax base substantially though up to 75 lakh turnover a composition scheme exists for Manufacturers and Traders but not for Service Providers. Composition scheme is available for service providers also in the category of  restaurant/ food & beverage supply.
In the matter of input tax credit, invoice level matching prior to accepting the credit has been introduced which will go a long way in avoiding fraudulent credits and the process of accepting inward supplies by the receiver for accepting input credit will lead to a self-policing mechanism in compliance.
All these have been possible by a constitutional amendment.
While addressing  whether a Government Organisation shall require registration, multiple opinions emerge
The Government including the Central Govt is defined as a person
The person whose turnover exceeds 20 lakh to register
Turnover includes exempt supplies and  exports also.
Government has to recover TDS @1% (CGST & SGST each) for payments on contact value above 2.5 lakh. For this purpose, a Tax Deductors Account Number based registration is required.
To identify the destination for the Inter state sales for passing on the benefit of SGST to the consuming state and for UN bodies, embassies, to claim refund of taxes, a Unique ID Number or UIN is also advised for Government in the FAQ released by CBEC.
Thus the form of registration is yet a point of contention.
Taking a registration in each form shall bind the organization to different compliances in the form of returns and records to be maintained. Hence a balanced call to be taken.
Further being predominantly an end-user, the concept of input credit might not be too relevant for a Govt Organization especially in the absence of taxable output services apart from performing the sovereign functions as per allocation of business rules.
All the above will vary from organization to Organization and on same organization over passage of time.
Though it is opined that there will be a lot of issues in the rollout of the tax regime, the present Government has taken the bull by its horns. Let's hope it would be able to tame it.

Jallikattu Man vs Bovine

Man vs animal, the eternal struggle. It has been a long time since man gained an upper hand over his animal foes, thanks to growing civilization and tools aided by technology. Still the caveman tries to wakeup in the form of games like jallikattu where man tries to come out of the protection offered by technology and civilization to get even with nature and try to beat it in its own backyard.
For the man's desire to be one with nature, the beasts which are already one with nature are herded to their doom in quite unnatural circumstances. What is one man's game is another animals kill zone. They can't express themselves, they can't safeguard themselves, they can only follow their gut instinct which tells them to run at a maddening pace to escape this trap.
This is now getting justified in the name of Tamil culture and glorified. Anyone speaking against this practice is an anti tamil "Drohi".
Jallikattu served its purpose quite gloriously in the centuries that passed, it is not necessary that it needs to be carried forward for eons. The stated purposes of safeguarding native breeds, promotion of bull rearing,etc can be achieved by monetary funding and appropriate promotion itself. The barbarian act need not continue. Like so many other reforms this too can be accepted and society can move ahead.
Let peace be there between us and our bovine friends.