Are NRIs any bigger than ordinary Indians?
Alias when the ‘NRI tax’ dilutes the patriotic and ‘give back to my country’ platitude
The proposed tax on non-resident Indians (NRIs) by the Indian government has, let us just say, ‘exposed’ the patriotic fervour of many.
People, for years, who have been lavishing the platitude that ‘we value our roots’ and ‘we want to give back to our country’ are now clamouring for tax-cover, when it is very well documented that NRIs, the real ones, who live and breathe the foreign air for a good 240 days, will not come under the tax net for income they earn abroad — but only for income they generate on assets, business, property in India — much like any other ‘ordinary’ Indians.
That they might have enjoyed such tax-breaks thanks to their NRI status — which is what made many a Malayali film actor to clamour for ‘residence visas’ in the UAE — is finally being revoked; and what is wrong with that? As any sane person must and should ask, ‘NRIkku entha kombundo?’ (Do NRIs have horns?)
The argument then goes in favour of the ‘poor rich’ NRIs, people who have made their millions abroad, have expanded their ‘empire’ to India (more so in Kerala), have been benefiting from the largesse of both LDF and UDF governments (through significant party funding, jobs for kids and what not), who suddenly feel threatened.
As one prominent lawyer lamented, this is going “to discourage investments by NRIs in India.’ Pray, what for? Because they don’t want to pay taxes? So they want to benefit from the lucrative opportunity that India offers but cannot pay, like any other common citizen, tax on what they earn?
Isn’t this the loud cry that the rich NRIs from the UAE are now making? On the flimsy ground that they travel a lot to their ‘motherland’ out of love to serve the community, come on, it has very well been clarified that ‘if your habitual abode is the UAE’ you will not be taxed for your income in the UAE, and you will continue to be deemed an NRI.
So, if any of these NRIs, still cry out loud that they are being taxed in India, it just shows that their patriotism extends where their tax-forms begin.
But surprisingly, every debate seems to have ended with the big giants being assured that only their Indian money is going to be taxed: There are still grey areas that are the real causes of concern for NRIs.
1.What happens to those NRIs who actually work three to four years in a row and come on long vacations in India — such that, in one particular year, they don’t stay the mandatory 240 days abroad. Will they become non-NRIs that year, and will they be taxed?
2. What happens to those people who work in oil rigs, who work two to three months, and come on one-month breaks? Will they be considered as habitually aboding in the UAE? Do they have to provide proof for that?
Maybe these and many more of doubts that linger in the minds of ordinary NRIs must be addressed by the media and the government that take up cudgels on behalf of the rich and mighty, who if you haven’t noticed, have already been granted by CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s government the go ahead to own even larger swathes of land — more than 15 acres — in the pretext of bringing ‘big industries to the state.’
Pray, which are these big industries? Are they the malls and hospitals that spring up in every nook and corner with Gulf money? Or are they large manufacturing plants? Big industry, my foot! In Kerala, that too!
No one laments for the mom-and-pop shops that went out of business when big malls sprang up, taking with it the vastness of ‘empty land’ too; no one remembers that when a North Indian company opened a supermarket in Kerala, it was smashed because our leftists won’t allow ‘big giants to squeeze out our little businesses.’
All is forgotten with more money coming into the coffers of parties so much that they will make roads one-ways for newly opened malls! The public be damned!
ENDS
