Customers are for service, surveys are for feedback.

Treating taxpayers as customers may be more productive than the present system of treating people as dishonest, writes Aurodeep Nandi. "The problem is that the dishonest citizen doesn't roam around with a label around her neck," he writes. "So when the government decides to go after her, it inadvertently comes with such a heavy hand that a majority of the honest ones become collateral casualties." What if the tax dodger does not consider herself to be dishonest? Since all politicians are dishonest and use our money to finance their lavish lifestyles there is no guilt in avoiding taxes any which way. It cannot be wrong to pick the pocket of a pickpocket. Not just Indians, Americans hate paying taxes too. The reasons are curiously very similar. The laws are complicated, the adversarial system was inherited from the British, a colonial power, and the rich can use the laws to reduce their tax burden. The best example is Warren Buffet's assertion that he pays a lower rate than his secretary. Buffet was third on Forbes' list of the richest billionaires in the world last year. In India the rules are so complex that we have to take the help of a chartered accountant to file returns, who has to pay service tax on his fees. In effect, we have to pay a service tax to pay income tax. Isn't that nice? How to make taxes a pleasure? Collect feedback from citizens on the functioning of tax officers, suggests Nandi. Nobody will dare to complain against a government officer because the revenge will be vicious and anonymous feedback is of no use because it will be rejected as gossip. Tax fellows are agitating against the Goods and Services Tax because they may become redundant. Surely that is good for us ordinary people, but the Finance Minister has assured them that their jobs are safe. Still, all officers at the Central Board of Excise and Customs are going to wear black armbands from today. Oh dear, no one trusts politicians. Experts read books but do not understand what people feel. India has the largest number of VIPs at over 500,000. These people have all kinds of perks. To continue their grip on power they need to bribe voters with handouts. So, we pay taxes for the luxuries of VIPs who use our money to bribe voters to stay in power permanently. In a recent survey only 3% of the top 20% of those surveyed saw themselves as rich. Only a small fraction of the middle 60% considered themselves as middle class. Only 23% of households have private health insurance. 36% of the top 20% have private health insurance. Politicians and civil servants can get treatment abroad, we pay for every service. Over 400 police stations do not even have a telephone. No need to protect us from criminals but tens of thousands of tax fellows to extract the last drop of blood. Give us full health cover and pensions, we will gladly pay. Else continue the oppression.