Income tax collections: A very good lesson India can learn from Singapore

Source: CNA

Singapore shared that in FY2014/15 the Income tax collections grown by 16% and hit SGD 8.9 Billion. This is close to 2.1% of the nations GDP.

On the other hand, India tax collections for FY13/14 it stood at 242856 crores or SGD 53.9 Billion and budgeted for FY14/15 are at 63.1 Billion. From GDP point of ratio this is approx 3.3% of the GDP.

If we see the maximum income without paying any tax in Singapore is SGD 20,000(after deductions), and in India it is INR 250,000 or SGD 6,000.

However if we take the median income of a person in singapore, the effective tax rate is less than 10%. For the same, in India it is higher than 20%. By the way the common man on street in Singapore get "potable tap water, fresh air (except the few weeks of haze contributed by Indonesia) and never go hungry". On top of it there is heavily subsidised healthcare, education and scholarships. I didn't even have to mention the safety & security in the country.

I can easily say (my deduction could be challenged and I am no way posses any insider knowledge) the problem in India is the tax system itself is designed to be backwardish and not for an asian economy. We have to keep it simple and we have to make it easy, and transparent. Unfortunately the people who are honest and paying income tax will end up paying from their noses while those so called business man, big industrialists, and many other unorganized industries end up paying zero tax.

Finally the IRAS (Tax collection body in Singapore) shared another interesting fact.

" It cost 0.8c to collect $1 in tax revenue and they owe this to using technology and simplifying the process".

That's probably the best every anybody could hope for. But knowing Singapore, they would reduce it next year by few percentage points.

Extremely important day for Singapore and millions of people living, working, visiting the amazing nation.

11th Sep 2001 is an extremely horrible day for the world. But fast forward to fourteen years and today it is crucial for millions of people in this tiny nation Singapore.

It's the elections day. I don't think I can sleep tonight and I am eagerly waiting for the results announcement.

There are plenty of blogs, websites, forums, facebook chats but in a nutshell this is the day when 2.6 millions of voters going to decide whether a pragmatic, future looking and hard working party vs other parties who just behave like the parties in India, Indonesia or any other developing country (i.e. focusing on emotional needs, creating the fear of US vs THEM etc).

Singapore is a miracle nation, and it's success can't be attributed to one person. A minor chunk goes to a handful of visionaries led by Mr.LKY, while the rest which is the major portion to goes to it's people who backed Mr.LKY ideas of hardwork, perseverance and pragmatism. But this time, I am hearing some disturbing comments from highly educated, successful and nice people. Which is "preferential treatment based on birth, and most importantly FREE stuff". Unfortunately no person, family, town, state or nation can rely on FREE distribution. Someone need to pay for it.

So looking forward for the people of Singapore to use brain vs emotional hearts, and decide the future of this miraculous nation. 

Goodbye Hello Card: No cheap calling cards from Singtel anymore

Source: Singtel

There goes another product which I loved a lot. This time it's Hello card. Basically it is a prepaid international calling card to make cheap (It's ~1-2c / min to many nations in asia pacific) voice calls. On top of it, the icing is you can let it call you back to minimize your outgoing minutes usage.

This is by far the most popular card for many of my friends who still use this as a backup on top of Skype/Facetime/Whatsapp. As most of us experienced, sometimes the plain old voice call using mobile CS is better than blazing fast LTE or WiFi.

Guess one of the reason is the popular Hi card from Singtel which is the mobile prepaid card which bundles cheap voice calls to specific countries and offer custoimzed top-ups based on subscriber country. e.g. topup a package to get 100 min to philippines or something.

Wish Netflix to come soon (they have announced that it's early 2016) and kill my other hated service which is MIO TV :)

Irony. India is the worlds largest beef exporter

Source: Indexmundi

You can see the growth from 1990-2004 and exponential growth from 2009 onwards...

Emotional messages, Whatsapp spam and fooling the youth with inaccurate information

Just received this Whatsapp message from a friend. Full text below and not worth even spending a couple of minutes.

Basically it tells the Indian youth to boycott Chinese good and crush them because they fought with India once, and still supporting Pakistan.. Shame on the people who are sharing this..First of all

• Devaluation doesnt work as mentioned and by no means RMB is devaluated by 30%. It's around 3-4% (Source: WSJ)
• Secondly, India is not even close to the claim of biggest market. It's USA and based on 2014 stats, India is not even in the top 10 list(Sources: Wikipedia, Hindu). It's actually less than 1% of China GDP(2013 numbers of 65B bilateral trade vs 6807B GDP). 
• Finally, if people want to stop using Chinese goods then there won't be any whatsapp users left in India. Essentially all electronic goods, communication stuff used in telcos are from China.

So enjoy the silence guys.

ATTENTION GUYS....
Must read..Must share..
Today China is the under the threat of economical slump. So china has devaluated its currency by 30%. According to the global economists, china will face economical slowdown by decreasing the prices of products by its domestic industries . so Chinese products will be available in very cheaper rate in Indian and other markets.
     But this is time to weaken Chinese economy, which we can do. Coz India is the biggest market for the china across the globe. China is making the business of 6.2 million crore of Indian rupees per annum by Indian market.
       And as we know china is claiming on Indian territory and acquiring border areas,It seems that china is in war stance with India. Also China is supporting Pakistan indirectly to counter India to become a sub-continental leader.
       Hence this is the time to crush Chinese economy, hence I am requesting to each and every Indian that Do not buy any Chinese product for upcoming one month at least. It will be great if you will not buy product ever which is Made in China.Even here to make an appeal to all Indian Merchants and retailers that plz do not make business by Chinese products for upcoming one month as those products are going to be more cheaper.
       This is the time to slap china and to become A Patriotic Indian. Lets do it for Nation.
Guys,India is having 37% of whatsapp users out of its total population ( source: Gadget of telecommunications),out which 92% users are youngsters. We are sharing tonnes of useless messages daily. But as much as you spread this message ,that much will be the useful to your future itself.We should avail each n every chance to counter against the powerful enemy like China.
     As the responsible citizen of The Republic of India, I am requesting you to make this message viral. Do not miss a single contact from your phone book.
      Your deed of not buying Chinese products and to tell the same to others is equally important to the Nation as the service by An Indian Soldier on our boarders!
               || Jay bharat ||