Windfall taxes

Ordinary human beings do not like to pay taxes. The extraordinary US judge and jurist Oliver Wender Holmes was an exception: he enjoyed paying tax because he believed he thereby bought civilisation! The CPM has advocated the imposition of a windfall profit tax on private/joint venture oil-producing companies and private standalone refineries because the huge profits enjoyed by them have increased along with the increase in oil prices. The rationale is that private refineries do not contribute to meet the oil subsidy bill and their profits are in the nature of a windfall and should be taxed.

Windfall taxes should also be levied on persons who make enormous profits solely because of fortuitous events and the operation of societal forces. They have not expended any time, labour or energy and indeed have not worked at all to earn these huge profits. There is nothing wrong in making them disgorge a part of their undeserved gains. Besides, willing payment of windfall taxes may perhaps kindle a patriotic spark in their materialistic fabric and assuage their guilty feelings about acquiring undeserved wealth. The CPM’s suggestion appeals to a sense of equity.

Classic goof?

Goofs there have been and will be because of human fallibility. However, deporting Ansar Burney, a former minister of Pakistan, back to Dubai after landing in Delhi is a classic goof. Were immigration authorities unaware of Burney’s credentials and his efforts in securing the release of Indian citizen Kashmere Singh from Pakistani prison, and his campaign for reprieve of Sarabjeet Singh? Or is there something in the goof which is more than meets the eye? Will the home ministry inform citizens, who surely have a right to know?