Educated sweepers.

"India Inc is in a sweet spot." Because of "The economic tailwinds and improving industry conditions," "rising cash flows, prudent balance sheets and falling leverage." "We forecast aggregate earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) for rated Indian companies to grow 10% in 2024, driven by telecoms, airports, commodities and chemicals," wrote Abhishek Dangra & Neel Gopalakrishnan. In September 2019, the corporate tax rate was reduced to 22%, so that the effective tax rate came down to 25.17% inclusive of surcharge and cess. The tax rate for new manufacturing investment was reduced to 15%, the effective tax rate coming to 17.01%. pib.com. In FY 2023-24, gross corporate tax collection was Rs 11.32 trillion while the net corporate tax collection was Rs 9.11 trillion, compared with gross personal tax collection at Rs 12.01 trillion and net at Rs 10.44 trillion. pib.gov.in. Because of the cut in corporate tax rate, "Over the last five years, the revenue forgone stood close to Rs 9 trillion." But this has not increased investment. "Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), a key indicator of investment, grew at an average rate of only 1.4% from 2019-23." Corporate profit to GDP ratio jumped to 3.8%, the highest in 15 years, while private consumption growth at 4.4% in 2023-24 was the slowest rate in two decades, wrote Salman Soz. It follows that salaries of CEOs have risen exponentially. Infosys CEO's compensation is "nearly 700 times that of the median remuneration in the company," while former Wipro CEO's was 1,702 times that of the median worker remuneration. TOI. "The immediate consequence of the 2019 tax breaks was a sharp decline in the effective tax rate to 22.5% in 2019-20 from an average of 29% in the preceding year." "The incentives would have been justified had they led to job creation or more investment. Neither happened. Not only did the private sector reduce its employee costs as a proportion of sales, its profit share rose sharply," wrote Prof Himanshu. Not at all, say TV Mohandas Pai & Nisha Molla. In 2022-23, the gross total income (GTI) of individuals was Rs 62.4 trillion, or 21.1% of gross domestic product (GDP), while the GTI of corporates was Rs 38.3 trillion, or 13% of GDP, but corporates paid Rs 7.2 trillion in taxes while individuals paid Rs 6.8 trillion. In the Budget 2024, the capital gains taxes on short term gains was increased to 20% from 15% and on long term gains to 12.5% from 10%. cleartax.in. Inflation indexation on the sale of real estate was removed but was reinstated for all properties purchased before 23 July 2024. ET. Why is the government punishing the middle class? Because "as the Economic Survey of 2022-23 had pointed out, more than 300 direct benefit transfers schemes are run by the central government and more than 2,000 by state governments." So income tax collections have gone up from 2.4% of GDP in 2018-19 to 3.5% in 2023-24 and will rise to 3.6% in 2024-25, wrote Vivek Kaul. Necessary to bribe the vote bank to win elections. However, taxes on income reduce disposable income, which reduces consumer spending and, reduced consumer demand, makes it unprofitable for businesses to invest in new capacity. Which means no new jobs. And so, 46,000 post graduates, 6,000 graduates and 120,000 with Class XII schooling have applied for jobs as sweepers in offices of the Haryana Government. BT. Taxes on income become taxes on jobs. Fruitless.