Citizens' mounting worries
Saturday, 18 August 2007
Worries are mounting for those of us who belong to what can be called the remnants of the middle class. Prices are on an unabated rise, making it difficult to maintain the modicum standard of living that we could enjoy even a couple of years ago or more. There is no sign about prices coming down and, in all probability, there will be another round of price-spiralling during the month of Ramadhan.
While we are passing our days in hardship now further aggravated by the after-effects of the flood, the drive by the concerned authorities of the government to penalise us for keeping some savings, accumulated over the years, or funds acquired through sales of our inherited property in a situation where we cannot show our actual receipts because the registered value thereof is half of what we got, in banks or in the from of savings certificates. We are to pay now tax on our interest earnings on bank deposits, savings certificates and savings with post office. Even we have to clear off the backlog of tax on our 'undisclosed income' of modest amounts. The reason for which such money was not declared earlier should not be difficult to comprehend. This is more so in the context of an utter absence of any government-provided safety net to look after our interests in difficult times, hard days and old age.
Many citizens are also passing their days in panic now for whatever petty wrong-doings, irregularities or, if you prefer to call it, petty corruption they had committed over past several years when the system itself had become rotten or graft-ridden. Under such circumstances, it will be difficult to say who is Mr. Clean and who is not from among those among most of us, barring those who care little about, or are in no position to consider, the needs and requirements of tomorrow.
It is time that the authorities concerned give a pragmatic consideration about the unsettling effects of their operational activities in a multi-pronged way in order to achieve spectacular results. That seems to many of us to be an illusive goal. It will be much better if the incumbent government goes hard for deep-seated institutional reforms to preclude the possibility about any return to the status quo ante.
In a situation when many people have the skeleton in the cupboard, it will be impractical to chase them all and put them behind the bar. It is preferable to penalise them differently while giving them the opportunity to mend their ways with a strong institutional mechanism at work to detect any future wrong-doing on their part. The matter is, if course, different for those who have grossly abused their political power and public office for amassing big fortunes, running into crores of takas.
Ahmed Ali
Bashaboo, Dhaka.
While we are passing our days in hardship now further aggravated by the after-effects of the flood, the drive by the concerned authorities of the government to penalise us for keeping some savings, accumulated over the years, or funds acquired through sales of our inherited property in a situation where we cannot show our actual receipts because the registered value thereof is half of what we got, in banks or in the from of savings certificates. We are to pay now tax on our interest earnings on bank deposits, savings certificates and savings with post office. Even we have to clear off the backlog of tax on our 'undisclosed income' of modest amounts. The reason for which such money was not declared earlier should not be difficult to comprehend. This is more so in the context of an utter absence of any government-provided safety net to look after our interests in difficult times, hard days and old age.
Many citizens are also passing their days in panic now for whatever petty wrong-doings, irregularities or, if you prefer to call it, petty corruption they had committed over past several years when the system itself had become rotten or graft-ridden. Under such circumstances, it will be difficult to say who is Mr. Clean and who is not from among those among most of us, barring those who care little about, or are in no position to consider, the needs and requirements of tomorrow.
It is time that the authorities concerned give a pragmatic consideration about the unsettling effects of their operational activities in a multi-pronged way in order to achieve spectacular results. That seems to many of us to be an illusive goal. It will be much better if the incumbent government goes hard for deep-seated institutional reforms to preclude the possibility about any return to the status quo ante.
In a situation when many people have the skeleton in the cupboard, it will be impractical to chase them all and put them behind the bar. It is preferable to penalise them differently while giving them the opportunity to mend their ways with a strong institutional mechanism at work to detect any future wrong-doing on their part. The matter is, if course, different for those who have grossly abused their political power and public office for amassing big fortunes, running into crores of takas.
Ahmed Ali
Bashaboo, Dhaka.