Since the country’s apex court has won praise for its efforts to recover a number of missing people in the country, the government might ask it to help bring back thousands of taxpayers who have ‘mysteriously disappeared’ from tax files.
“Officials say around 600,000 registered taxpayers have suddenly vanished from official records,” Mr Right revealed. “Can anybody trace their whereabouts?”“It’s better not to trace them because a lot of taxpayers’ money will be wasted on investigation without reaching anywhere,” I cautioned.“We have so many secret services in the country who know how to deal with money matters,” Mr Right said. “They should be asked to solve the puzzle.”“We may even ask the Scotland Yard to help us find out the missing taxpayers?” I suggested. “They have been tried in some cases in the past also.”
“But remember they failed to reach any conclusion,” Mr Right reminded me. “We need an investigator who could discover the hands behind such frauds.”“The days of Sherlock Holmes are no more,” I said. “The present day detectives get transferred from cities to border areas if they try to act smart in cases that might involve government functionaries.”“We are living in dangerous times when anything and anybody can go missing without a trace,” I lamented. “You can lose your car or your kidney anytime, if somebody feels that you can be of any use to him.”
“And what do you say about kidnappings for ransom?” Mr. Right pointed out. “People go missing and nobody could do anything.”“But the situation is different this time,” I said, “the missing people are taxpayers whose disappearance will lead to a big loss of revenue for the government. The case will certainly be probed because money is needed to meet the budget requirements.”“Yes, tax officials must take up the matter seriously now because the money is needed to pay their salaries, “ Mr Right smiled.
“People say that the incident is an eye-opener for the authorities who must try to explore new ways of revenue collection,” I said. “And one way could be to enlarge the tax net.”“I don’t think so,” Mr Right disagreed. “Nobody wants to pay taxes except the poor salaried people who pretend to be rich and love to boast that they pay taxes.”“Businessmen have stopped paying government taxes because they prefer to pay local levies called ‘protection fee’ imposed on them by extortionists,” I said.“Officials should try to improve the confidence level of taxpayers and extend incentives to encourage all money-spinners to pay taxes, but the initiative can succeed only when taxes are fair,” Mr Right said.
“Well, once a senior tax official, addressing a meeting of wealthy notables in a city, asked them about what sort of taxation they found most fair,” I continued. “One of the gentlemen with a big belly raised his hand. ‘It’s agriculture tax,” he said.“What?” the tax official was taken aback. “But we never imposed such a tax,” he clarified. “Yes, that’s why I say that is most fair,” the man said.”Mr Right beamed. “Farm tax is impossible, but the tax department can raise money by collecting animal hides and selling it after the season of sacrifice. Now it will have to depend on alms to meet national expenses if data about more than half a million tax payers was lost due to clerical faults.”
“I still think the mistake can be rectified by a thorough probe, let’s hire some top detectives,” I insisted.“Well, this case could have been solved only by Sherlock Holmes,” Mr Right said. “Once he went for camping in the woods with his friend Dr Watson. In the middle of the night, he tried to wake him up. “Listen, what do you see, Dr Watson?”
“It’s nice and cool, and the sky is lit with stars,” Dr Watson replied.“Idiot,” Sherlock Holmes said, “Somebody has stolen our camp.”“You mean, Sherlock Holmes might have given a shock to our tax officials too?” I asked.“Yes, only then they would have known that somebody had stolen their tax net,” Mr Right concluded. – Khaleejnews
