Sharing of wealth in India

It is a shame that Indians have to be advised by outsiders on Dharma for sharing and distribution of wealth among the needy.Indian culture,heritage and philosophy speak very high of dharma and the real joy of life is giving and not taking and accummulating.The politicians and bureaucrats have looted the country and enabled a few industrialists to amass wealth through wrong taxation and other economic policies. Some of them share a part of the wealth to earn a name and gain tax benefits.Some are looting even in the name of charitable trusts and charities. Govt sponsored schemes to aid the poor are avenues for free loot and the money does not reach the intended beneficiaries. Loot is going on in the name of spiritualism and there are no checks and balances. Ethics and values have been given a go bye and for survival one has to be dishonest, corrupt, disloyal,and 420 in letter and spirit. Honesty and straightforwardness are openly condemned. Corruption,blackmoney,and out of the way dealings are openly encoraged and anybody raising voice against mal practices and irregularities are taken to task and harassed.Morals and Principles in day to day life have become things of past geneartion and very talk of these things are looked down upon with contempt. Before we beg the wealthy to distribute their wealth, let all Indians learn to introspect and realise that over a period we have discarded values, morals, and ethics which our ancient culture and civilisation were once proud of.

Dr.T.V.gopalakrishnan

Dividend and Income Tax.

Link to the article in ET is here.


It is time dividend earned beyond a cut off limit of Rs 1 crore and above should be brought under Income Tax net. A salary income of Rs 1.80 lakh is taxed. Out of this income, the person has to maintain family, take care of medical expenses, education of children and all sorts of expenses which include bribing to get small things done. It is difficult to understand Indian Taxation policy. Those who earn very high income beyond the imagination of ordinary people silently enjoy and talk of morals and ethics. politicians and bureacrtas who make unaccounted money enjoy life at others cost and advise people to lead a simple life with high thinking. They also liberally quote Bhagavat geetha, Ramayana and Gandhian thoughts for people to follow. It is time for industrialists to voluntarily contribute for common peoples' welfare as the money they earn by way of dividend is in a way public money. Make education free as far as possible and see that common people do not struggle to lead a life having atleast two time ordinary meals. With inflation ruling high, poor people have no means to survive.There is no moral, economic and social justification to exempt dividend from Income Tax under the name of double taxation. Taxation policy and the implementation of the policy have done maximum damage to our economy and the people. Will the authorities have the conscience to compare the tax and income of the Rich and the Ordinary taking into account the inflation factor and the living standards?

Auditors, Banks and Accountability

DrT.V.Gopalakrishnan (Fort worth, Texas)
30 Aug, 2011 04:09 AM

The editorial reads well and the suggestion that auditors should be paid from a pool of finance is welcome to prevent frauds and provide better accountability. However, this will not prove to be a foolproof method as long as the Boards of Directors are not made accountable and corporate Governance is rated in a transparent manner. The banks have also a major role to ensure that the corporates they finance conduct the accounts satisfactorily and the NPAs do reflect correct position. The auditors of Companies and auditors of banks have to have some inter action to ensure that all the Companies' dealings with banks and conduct of accounts, balances with banks, current assets, working capital position and NPAs reflect a true and correct position in terms of banks books and companie's books. Such an approach would itself reduce the nature of irregularities as seen in Satyam's books.

The ethics and values adhered to by Auditors in both banks' and corporates' accounts need to be independently assessed by their respective regulators viz; the Reserve Bank and the SEBI. There should be adequate checks and balances to ensure that the accounts reflect the correct position and there is no room for concern for investors. The Auditors unfortunately have not been enjoying the confidence of Regulators, investors and the Government is a fact to be taken note of by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India while fixing their compensation and mode of payment.

This appeared in ET E paper dated 30/08/11.