Taxing losses, instead of profits.

"The aviation sector in India suddenly looks a lot like the spooked telecom sector," wrote R Kundu and B Mukherji. Partly it is their fault and partly bad luck. IndiGo and GoAir are struggling to replace faulty Pratt and Whitney (P&W) engines on their Airbus 320neo aircraft while SpiceJet is unable to fly its Boeing 737 Max aircraft which were grounded after two crashes, killing a total of 346 people, due to the faulty MCAS software. When Jet Airways failed, airlines added capacity and decreased prices to capture Jet passengers but, "For the first time since 2008, India's busiest airports - Delhi and Mumbai - have seen a year-on-year dip in passengers in 2019 compared with 2018." Delhi received 19 million international passengers compared to 18 million in 2018 but domestic passenger number fell from 52 million in 2018 to 49 million in 2019, while in Mumbai, domestic passenger number fell from 35 million in 2018 to 33.8 million in 2019 and international passengers fell from 14 million in 2018 to 13 million in 2019. Price of oil has gone up to around $65 per barrel and the weak rupee, which has fallen from 69 to the dollar in July 2019 to around 71 today, have both increased cost. Then there are taxes. "The central government currently charges 14 percent excise duty on ATF (airline turbine fuel). On top of this, states charge up to 30 percent sales tax or VAT..." Plus the taxes on airline tickets and we can understand why passenger numbers are going down. The government could help airlines by reducing taxes and by refraining from arbitrary changes in rules, wrote Amit Kapoor. Unlikely, as the government is nearly bankrupt and is using strong arm tactics to wring as much money out of companies as it can. Telecom companies, struggling to survive, have to pay Rs 1.47 trillion in licence fees, taxes and penalties. They can represent their cases but "in no case the self-assessment and payment of dues are to be delayed", was the threat from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Public sector oil companies have been ordered to shell out Rs 190 billion in dividend, 5% more than last year. This is more ransom than dividend. The government is pressuring the Reserve Bank (RBI) to pay Rs 350-450 billion on top of the Rs 1.76 trillion it has already extracted. Naturally, citizens are easy prey. "Every year, the disclosure requirements in the ITR (income tax returns) forms, besides your income and taxes thereon, keep increasing," wrote Gautam Nayak. "In the last five years, income tax return (ITR) forms have started asking for more details to ensure that your spending patterns match your tax return profile," wrote AK Sharma. When the government is the predator people are too scared to spend or invest. "All this clearly tells us that corporate India is clearly not interested in investing at this point in time. Like consumers, they have very little confidence in the economic future," wrote Vivek Kaul. Taxes pay for politicians and civil servants. Rest of us need to pay up.