Should there be a mandate to hide corruption?

In an interview to the TOI on 31 July our most revered Finance Minister was asked whether the tax department is " highly confrontational ". " It is exaggerated. Are they not confrontational with the OECD countries? Every country is worried about base erosion and profit shifting," he said. Er, it is absolutely not the same. Sure, in OECD countries everyone has to pay taxes. Including politicians. And that is the point. In India rates are too high and, as the Minister himself admitted, only 35 million out of a population of 1,200 million pay income tax. And receive no service in return. The money is looted by evil politicians and civil servants for self, family and for bribing the " vote bank " to win elections. That is why the economy is going to collapse. A simple vegetarian meal at a roadside restaurant at a cost of Rs 400 attracts tax of Rs 66 which is works out to 16.5%. If that is the tax on food one can imagine the rates on essential goods such as fridges, cars and air conditioners. We hear that taxes on " luxury goods " will be increased. Why should white people live in luxury and Indians live like beggars? When asked if the previous Comptroller and Auditor General had caused pessimism in the economy he said," To a considerable extent. The former CAG did great damage to the system. He exceeded his jurisdiction and he exceeded his mandate. We are importing coal we should be exporting. We have coal reserves for over 200 years," was the reply. But we are also having to import iron ore which we were exporting not so long ago. Surely a Finance Minister, especially one who is desperate to reduce fiscal and Current Account deficits and is piling on extortionate taxes on hapless citizens, should be delighted to find out how trillions of rupees have been looted so that he can increase revenues. A Parliamentary Committee on coal and steel, not the CAG, said that all coal blocks allocated since 1993 were illegal. Out of 195 coal blocks allocated for captive mining since 1993, with reserves of 44.23 billion tonnes, only 30 blocks have started production. Out of 160 captive blocks allocated during 2004-2008, when he was also the Minister of Finance, only 2 have started production. Would he accuse his colleagues in parliament of exceeding their " jurisdiction " and " mandate ". No one should have a mandate to keep silent on corruption. Strange that a man in charge of finance of the nation should think so.