Services instead of baksheesh maybe a better option.

A man in Gujarat has been sentenced to prison for 1545 days for not paying Rs 1,800 per month as maintenance to his elderly parents. The man works as a sweeper and lives with his parents along with his wife and children. India passed a Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act in 2007 which forces children and legal heirs to pay for their monthly expenses, including food, clothes and medicines. That is surely laudable in a country where the vast majority of people do not receive any pension and therefore may not have the means to look after themselves as inflation eats away at their savings. "Children do not give their parents audience. They will not give them adequate food, do not buy them proper clothes, do not provide them with basic medicine. They may have taken away their property. They may send them to sit in a corner of a room alone," said a nameless bureaucrat. Civil servants in India are the elite of the elite with power and perks not available to any other citizen, even those paying taxes at the highest rates. The taxpayer will even pay for treatment abroad for the officer and members of his family, including stay for an attendant. The government is thinking of giving baksheesh to those taxpayers who pay more taxes. Apparently those who pay higher taxes will be allowed to have tea with the governor, although why anyone should pay to have tea with a politician, who is already looting the state, is a mystery. Every year Pakistan rewards the top 100 taxpayers with access to "VIP lounges at airports, fast track clearance at immigration counters, free passports and enhanced baggage allowance". Has that created a rush of Pakistanis bidding against each other to pay higher taxes? Only 1.21 million people, in a population of about 200 million, pay income tax in Pakistan. Trouble is that 82% of male and 92% of female workers earn less than Rs 10,000 per month in India. Only those earning more than Rs 250,000, that is Rs 21,000 per month, need to pay income tax. A 10% growth in GDP increases employment rate by only 1%. Out of a workforce of 467 million in 2015, 46.6% were self-employed, 32.8% were casual workers, 17% were regular salaried employees while the rest were contractual employees. Self employed means those eking out a livelihood selling vegetables, working as electricians or plumbers, or those with small shops. They are no entrepreneurs, working in swank offices and living in gated communities. Of those with regular jobs only 10% had written contracts in manufacturing and 28% in services. Extorting taxes with threats of prison is violence perpetrated by the state against citizens of India, wrote A Varma. Trying to sweeten that violence with baksheesh is not going to fool many. Sending children to prison for not looking after parents just punishes citizens for services which should be delivered by the state. Give us what civil servants and politicians get and we will compete to pay taxes. Till then keep whipping.