Dear Top BJP Member,

A few days ago, as I was surfing through the various television channels I happened to catch a debate in which you were participating in. On the issue of taxation you had said that during the last five years, a lot of additional taxes have been imposed (including ones like the fringe benefit tax) and once in power your party would ensure that the tax rates are reduced. A couple of days later we find the BJP manifesto clearly stating that the you raise the minimum limit for income tax to a whopping 3 lakhs resulting in huge savings for the (tax paying) people. Apart from this it also talks about tax concessions to senior citizens and members of the armed forces.

As a young, educated urban voter, this sounded music to my ears. I could easily save a lot more every month and yes splurge it in something “really cool”. But then when the “educated” part of me took over and I started pondering on the following:-

With this “urban populist” move of yours you would remove 1.25 crore people from the tax base (which is just 3.25 crore) and this move would cost the ex-chequer a whopping 25000 crores (approx). The economic slowdown has forced governments all over the world including India to introduce several fiscal stimulus packages to try and revive the economy which has resulted in our fiscal deficit touching around 12% of the GDP.

I am sure you are aware of all these facts and hence would really appreciate if your manifesto could also state the measures that your party would take to reduce the additional burden on the fiscal deficit that would arise out of these new “tax” incentives. The tax incentives present only one half of the picture, albeit incomplete – the roadmap to address its impact on the overall macro-economic situation of the country is required to convince me that’s it’s a good move. After all what value does a young, educated, urban voter bring if he cannot raise a few uncomfortable questions!