Taxing times

March 2012 will go down as one of the most taxing months in recent times. Hard pressed for revenue, the government has gone on a mop-up exercise, starting with the railway freight hike, passenger fare revisions and excise & service tax hikes in the Budget. All these fares and tax measures will result in a burden of around Rs 70,000 crore on consumers and tax payers across the board. And though not strictly comparable, even the interest rate on mandatory provident fund contributions of 47.2 million organised sector employees was slashed from 9.5 per cent to 8.25 per cent for 2011-12! (Click here for graphic)