How long can you suppress an empty purse?

"Getting a FASTag for your vehicle may buy you peace of mind," reported Times of India. "It is a different matter that the tag is useless on city roads and most state highways, leave alone to pay your parking fees." "FASTag is a Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) introduced by the government of India in October 2017 by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway."  "In order to apply for a FASTag card, you would need to submit your KYC (know your customer) documents - identity proof and residential proof." In short, this is just another weapon for surveillance added to Aadhaar and the invasive facial recognition technology on protesters. "The payment for a FASTag card in most cases is divided into three components: 1. Issuance fee, 2. Refundable security deposit and 3. Minimum balance which you need to credit to your digital wallet linked with your FASTag card." So, this is another extortion racket on car owners like the high security number plates forced on us in December. The biggest extortion is of course the usurious taxes on petrol taking its price to over Rs 90 per liter in India while it is Rs 51 per liter in Pakistan and Rs 60 in Sri Lanka. Till 2018, the government earned Rs 11 trillion from taxes on petrol. Even during the coronavirus-induced slowdown when people have lost jobs the government earned Rs 1.4 trillion from fuel taxes in this financial year. The Congress claims that the BJP government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has earned over Rs 20 trillion since 2014 when it first came to power. Then there was the "gift" of Rs 1.76 trillion from the Reserve Bank's reserve funds in September 2019, reported Forbes. No one knows how much money has been collected in the PM-Cares Fund, reported the BBC. The Supreme Court, no less, rejected any accounting of the fund collected from the public. Where has all the money gone? "The past fortnight witnessed the confluence of three important economic events: the Budget, release of the 15th Finance Commission's report, and Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) final bi-monthly policy for 2020-21. These three documents are sending rather dismal messages; the Budget document, in particular, seems imbued with signals of lower growth, with the Finance Commission and RBI further muddying the waters," wrote Rajrishi Singhal. Big states, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala will hold elections to their assemblies this year and Modi wants to win them all. As is usual, large expenses have been announced in these states and some spending has to start, even if they stop after the elections are over. Retail inflation was 4.1% in January because of a collapse in vegetable prices which means farmers will be badly hit. If growth actually takes off the huge cost of transport will cause prices to rocket. That is why the government has launched a ferocious uncontrolled assault on citizens for harmless dissent. But, that is for another post.