Finance stumps Generals

Senior officers in India’s armed forces are completely stumped by a recent order of the Union finance ministry. On a visit abroad, the Generals and the Admirals have been told they can only hire a point-to-point taxi and not a day taxi. So if an officer has three different meetings to attend, he must hire three different taxis, hailing each one at the point of departure and dismissing them and paying them off at the end of that specific journey. For the next meeting, hire another taxi. No one can hire a taxi for half a day or the full day. This way, officers end up spending time running for taxis between tightly-scheduled meetings. Some brilliant babu in the finance ministry has decided that this is the best way to stop someone from using the taxi hired for meetings for any shopping along the way! Penny wise, pound foolish!