Service tax on free advice

“If China is the factory of the world, India is the back office” Raman said.

“I fully agree with you. One full generation of our country has reaped the fruits of IT and IT related sectors” I replied.

We were sitting in the restaurant and having our Sunday breakfast. Though  staying in the same city, we seldom met. Sanjay, David and Ranjan were the other few who had accepted my invitation and joined the breakfast get together. The discussions went on for another half an hour. I looked around and smiled at the steward. He came to our table and said politely “Yes sir”

“Shall we have the check please” I said.

Sanjay was sitting next to me and he wrote on the tissue “Cheque or check?”

I smiled and said “Both are OK. In USA it is check and in other places it is cheque”
He laughed and said " In Russia will it be Checkov?" 

The steward brought the check. A small fight started. It was about paying the bill. Everyone wanted to pay. Finally it was decided to go Dutch. I smiled and said “During our engineering study days we used to fight over bills and of course it was to avoid paying.”

David said “It is strange and typical of Indians and south Asians. In Europe I do not see guys fight the way we do to pay the bills”.

Sanjay saw the bill and said “Look at the taxes. The VAT, Service tax and luxury tax add up to 25 %”

David replied “Good to note this. The government coffers will get filled up”

Ranjan started off “What is so good about it? Of late we are made to pay tax on everything.

The government makes lot of money collecting service tax. They have spread their tax net to almost all the services that are rendered.Taxes on many essential services are draining us”

I looked at Ranjan and said “This is bound to happen as the society advances and gets matured. The government needs money to run the show”.

I looked around and all of them nodded.

 I continued “There is something which is very rampant in India and not yet under the service tax net”

“Which service is that?” Raman questioned .

I replied “It is free advice. Have you not noticed that people are ready to give us free advice?

 If your son is having temperature, your neighbor advices not to take him to your regular pediatrician telling you that the doctor gives antibiotics.

Your friend and his wife will advice you against the school your kid is studying in, saying that the pupil-teacher ratio is high there and not many paid hobbies are available for the kid’s overall growth.

If you think of investing in the equity market and seek advice, you are doomed. You look for one, you get hundreds of them. Every investor becomes an expert and guides you to choose the mix of small cap, mid cap and large cap funds. In fact I lost considerable amount of money during the previous market crash as I heeded to the advice of my friends.

The list would be very long if I go on telling you guys about free advice given.”

Raman said “I agree with you as most of us have been targets of free advice at least once. What is the solution for this?”

I continued “There is no concrete solution for this as it is in our blood to give advice to others.

I feel the government can make huge money and help many of its citizens if they start levying service tax on free advice. They should not make the recipient  pay the tax but should charge the source. In such a case not many would come forward to give free advice as it would be costing them”

All of us laughed and started walking towards the parking area to get into our cars.