Unhappy with huge collections.

"Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Chairman Bibek Debroy...said the government was losing revenue due to the GST, which should be revenue neutral with a single rate." ET. "According to calculations by the finance ministry when GST was first introduced, the average rate should be at least 17 percent. But, the existing rate is 11.4 percent," he said. "The main culprit is the proliferation of slabs," wrote Ajit Ranade. ""If you want to reduce the 28% rate, then you have to move items from the 3% rate to 12%." The problem is that "The poor bear a greater burden of GST as a proportion of their incomes." So, there is a demand for more items at 0-3%. The second culprit is the concept of revenue neutral rate (RNR). "Remember the Laffer curve?" American economist Arthur Laffer suggested that "taxes could be too low or too high to produce maximum revenue and both a 0% income tax rate and a 100% income tax rate generate $0 in receipts." Investopedia. "The RNR approach has done more damage, because it has caused the median rate to drift up. It also aggravates the inequity inherent in indirect taxes." GST collection in July was up 11% to Rs 1.65 trillion. ET "The Indian government has collected Rs 6.53 lakh crore (Rs 6.53 trillion) as gross direct tax in the ongoing financial year up to August 10, showing a growth of 15.7 percent year-on-year, data showed." ET. "Direct tax collection, net of refunds, till August 10 stood at Rs 5.84 lakh crore, 17.33 percent higher than the net collections than the corresponding period of last year." Eye-watering numbers. "There were around 76,000 more so-called crorepatis (those earning over Rs 1 crore or Rs 10 million) by income tax returns (ITR) in 2022-23 when compared to 2021-22," wrote Roshan Kishore. Between 2011-12 and 2020-21, ITR data show there were more salary earners than businessmen in income up to Rs 10 million and even in the Rs 10-100 million bracket the ratio of earnings from salaries to that of business has increased from 0.34 to 0.57. Which means "Unless one is a really rich businessman, and there are few of them in India, it probably makes more sense to aspire to be in the elite salaried workforce than try and be an entrepreneur in India." "In absolute terms, net profits of listed corporates in FY 22 stood at Rs 9.5 trillion against Rs 5.6 trillion in FY 21, a jump of 69%," wrote Vivek Kaul. Which means gross profits would also have soared by a similar amount and the government must have collected enormous taxes. Profits soared as expenditure fell and "The biggest cut in expenditure was on interest payment on debt," which was due to the RBI cutting interest rate and printing money to drive down lending rates, making savers bear the cost of this low interest rate on their savings. Salaries and profits skyrocket, the government rakes in huge direct and indirect taxes, while the RBI actively helps in transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Learn to live on less. But, Mr Debroy is unhappy. Wants even higher taxes.