Rules only for the ruled.

"Amid allegations of 'tax terrorism', finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has sought a mindset change in tax officials while advocating a technology driven approach." "Tax officials have a delicate role to perform. A mindset change is needed to cater to an informed citizenry," she told a large gathering of tax department officials on Friday. Surely, she is being cute? She is the one who set extremely high and unrealistic tax collection targets on officials in this year's Budget. "While corporation tax mop-up is expected to register a 14 percent growth to Rs 7.7 lakh crore (Rs 7.7 trillion) this fiscal compared with the previous year's revised estimates, personal income tax is expected to grow 7.6 percent over the last year's number." "Net profit fell by 5.23% for the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier, showed a Mint analysis of 1,284 listed companies" despite a fall in prices of crude oil and other commodities. The total number of workers has fallen from 472.5 million in 2011-12 to 457 million in 2017-18, wrote Prof Himanshu. As shown by a fall in household consumption expenditure, there has been a rise in poverty during the first term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wrote Himanshu. "In 2018 prices, average consumption expenditure in rural areas declined from Rs 1,587 per person per month (ppm) in 2014 to Rs 1,524 ppm in 2017-18. The decline in urban areas was from Rs 2,926 ppm in 2014 to Rs 2,909 in 2017-18." India has always experienced inability of supply to keep pace with demand, wrote H Damodaran. "All this has changed in the last three years or less. The certainty that producers once enjoyed -- of finding buyers for their wares without doing much beyond minor price adjustments to bring supply and demand into equilibrium -- has ceased to exist." He agrees with Himanshu that this started in agriculture in 2014 and has spread to the rest of the economy. If corporate earning falls because of low demand how is Sitharaman demanding a 14% increase in corporate taxes? A study by Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed that "unemployment level rises proportionately as education level rises among those studied". At 13.2% unemployment was highest among graduates. If educated people cannot find jobs how does Sitharaman expect a 7.6% rise in personal income tax collections? "Growth in fast-moving (FMCG) consumer goods slumped in the past four quarters in a row since July-September 2018" which means lesser sales tax collection. "The use of technology and faceless assessment is the need of the hour in tax administration today," Sitharaman said. Are threats through emails and text messages any less intimidating for hapless citizens? Indian politicians cannot understand how menacing they are because they are above the law. We, the people, on the other hand, cower in fear. The rulers and the ruled.