We should get the service we pay for.

So, now we know. For over a week self-styled experts have been speculating on what would be in the budget, whether slabs for income tax will be increased and whether there will be any mention of the Goods and Services Tax, which is suppose to combine all taxes under a single heading, thereby avoiding cascading taxes and bringing down prices. The income tax level has stayed at the same levels while the service tax has been raised by over 1.5%. This will make travel, phone calls and electricity bills more expensive and is a penalty on having fun. In an overcrowded, filthy and dangerous city like Delhi having a beer with friends in a bar, eating out with the family in a restaurant or maybe going to a movie are the only ways of  enjoying a few hours of clean fun but that will now become dearer. On the other hand corporate taxes are to be reduced by 5% over the next 4 years. That is good because it will enable more of our business fellows to buy properties in London and New York. Indians invested $5.8 billion in buying real estate in the US one year back. We understand that without profits there will be no new investments, which are vital for job creation, but if the government enforced simple laws on billing and consumer complaints it would cut out a lot of deliberate cheating, save us money and make our lives much more pleasant. For instance, Airtel, a cell phone company, has drop boxes to collect cheques. For its broadband service it has allotted an account number to every customer so your cheque is payable only into that account. Very often they cash your cheque but accuse you of not paying your bill. All they have to do is to check your account to see if the money has been deposited but this they refuse to do. To prove that you have paid they insist that you send them a scanned copy of your bank statement, which is private. If you phone to complain you get a call center with extremely stupid and rude people who go on repeating the same sentence over and over again. It is frustrating, infuriating and you end up paying again to keep your broadband connection. Writing to Airtel head office in Gurgaon is of no use because they will not answer your letter. This is called ' company policy ' but is nothing but gouging the customer. All we want is to get the service that we are paying for. The budget has allotted Rs 42 billion for the Delhi metro, which is a 22% increase, and Rs 50 billion for Delhi police, which may reduce crimes against women. Giving another Rs 25 billion to Air India is a waste. How about reducing crimes against the consumer?