Trip to Haven
Yesterday the Times of India reported "Tax sleuths tracking frequent flyers to International tax havens have found that some of these individuals have a declared annual income of as little as Rs 1 lakh and, in a few cases, no income at all!"
I found I suddenly have a Saturday morning free , so I decided to do a little experiment….I went onto one of the popular online ticket booking sites and did a compilation of the fares to all the tax havens around the world. Its very interesting what i found.
| Airport | Approx. Cheapest Price in Indian Rupees |
| Freeport Bahamas | 89144 |
| Hamilton Bermuda | 79579 |
| Tortola British Virgin Islands | 105483 |
| Georgetown Grand Cayman | 98732 |
| Douglas Isle of Man | 73369 |
| Cote D Azur for Monaco | 59932 |
| Zurich for Lichtenstein | 47516 |
This means technically any person going there would wipe out his whole years income in one trip alone. Remember the table above is just plane fares and hotel and local conveyance is not included
Rs. 1 L annual income means that he earns as much as a municipal sweeper, so next time you walk along Monaco, make sure you smile at that Indian person crossing the street since theoretically he could be your local BMC jhaduwalla.
Lets look at this transaction a bit deeper.
This means that payments of 80 thousand and 1 lakhs + are being accepted
Now that the money has come into cash into travel agents pocket, he issues the ticket and pays the airline in cheque and everyone smiles…..one of the most convenient money laundering tricks I can ever think of.
Something is seriously wrong in India. The IT dept uses it head properly from time to time like when someone came up with the brilliant idea to tax the ghost 1200 Cr which Raju showed as income. (http://theindipatriot.blogspot.com/2009/01/flicker-of-flame.html)
Of course nothing came out of it, since somewhere between idea and execution lies the Indian babusism.
Now the new brainwave of some intelligent officer is that the IT dept has come up with this brilliant idea of co-relating trips to tax havens to IT returns…..how far will they pursue it, I wonder before they step on some babus toes?
IT dept says that it is vigoursly pursuing the Hassan Ali case. (taxman cometh) & ( count the zeros) & (thuje salam). He is finally charge sheeted under the FEMA. This is quite a watered down law as compared to the old draconian FERA but we will accept whatever we get as long as something gets done.
What is important to note is that both these actions the Raju and Hassan Ali have come in response to call for action by the Courts. Till the time the Supreme Court used such drastic words as ""What the hell is going on in this country?" nothing was really achieved in the Hassan Ali case.
Question each citizen needs to ask himself is this kind of Court intervention required for every case of corruption ?
No wonder we have a backlog of millions of cases.
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Osama is finally dead
The final nail has been pushed into the coffin. It is said that the militant
Of course I can't resist pasting in some Osama jokes sent in by a reader:
1) After attack on world centre Chinese PM calls bush & tells 'I am sorry. There was attack. If papers in the white house are destroyed please let us know. We have xerox copy for same'
2) American News- "Osama bin Laden's death has been in the news all day. Leftish stations are going, 'President Obama saves the world.' Stations on the right are going, 'Obama kills fellow Muslim.'" –Craig Ferguson
3) Comedian Steven Amiri: "Right now, Matt Damon is in a log cabin, silently cleaning his gun and is pleased with a job well done." ( Matt Damon plays Jason Borne – a deadly assassin)
4) R.I.P Osama Bin Laden - World Hide And Go Seek Champion (2001 - 2011)
5) "Osama Dead - Gadhafi increases his life cover policy."
7) "How about those Navy Seals. We're getting our money's worth there. They broke into Osama bin Laden's compound with 12-foot walls topped by barbed wire, and fired a warning shot into his head." –David Letterman
8) "Apparently, members of Al Qaeda are online slamming the U.S. I don't understand why they're so upset. Everyone in Al Qaeda just got a promotion." –Craig Ferguson
But my personal favourite:
"Finding bin Laden in Pakistan was like finding a needle in a country that swore it didn't have needles." –Stephen Colbert
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let me introduce myself:
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I am an person of Indian origin residing in Mumbai who feels that the time has come to speak up or be silent forever. We all see movies like Rang De Basanti or Lage Raho Munnabhai and after walking out of theatre for the next couple of days the effect hangs like a halo around us. A few days later we go back to our old ways. This is my way of keeping the spirit of India alive.
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As they say" 100 mein se 99% beimaan phir be India hai Mahaan"
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My Mission Statement is:
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I am sending you this mail since you have at some time or the other sent me a joke, an interesting article or some other little snippet or or some friend who has liked my articles has reffered you to me or at the very least you have been a CC on such an article forwarded to me so I feel this may be of interest to you.
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I have started a blog under the name indipatriot and am sending you this article and the link to the blog http://theindipatriot.blogspot.com where you can read this and other articles. I would also request you to send me articles and other things you would like me to publish on this blog from jokes to spiritual articles all comments are welcome. The email address for sending articles to is theindipatriot@yahoo.co.in If you feel that this blog is not to your taste and do not wish to receive updates about the same, please send an email to the same address and we shall remove you from the mailing list.
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