Finance Bill 2017 was passed in the Lok Sabha with barely any discussion as usual. Some amendments introduced in the bill at the eleventh hour have serious implications for the taxpaying public.
One key change affecting the taxpayer immediately is the mandatory linking of Aadhaar cards with income tax accounts for filing returns. The amendment paves the way for invalidation of PAN cards if the cardholder fails to link it with his or her Aadhaar number.
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The way the Modi government has been hurriedly going about forcing the Aadhar card on people has raised eyebrows, especially with questions in regard to infringement of privacy. Many have raised concerns on Aadhaar, with its insistence on biometric identification and various data linkages including bank accounts details, as to how such data would be used.
The issues of mass surveillance and ethnic cleansing in regard to Aadhaar have been raised by leaders. The implementation is autocratic to say the least. One by one, every single service is being linked to Aadhaar, leaving no choice in the matter for citizens.
The intent behind the move may take a while to analyse and decipher, but in the short term it will only pile greater agony on people who have not even opted for it in the first place. The linking of Aadhaar cards with accounts is hindered by another practical problem, the fact that data entered in different cards are bound to vary.
Data was sought at various times for the different cards that Indians have been burdened with and that has caused details right from the name of the cardholder to addresses to be entered differently. For instance, if the PAN card issuer insisted on giving the full name of the cardholder expanding even the initials, Aadhaar card authorities allowed entry of names with just the initials.
Data about the same individual varies across cards owing to variations in the way the data is collected and entered by different agencies, sometimes outsourced. It is unjust for the government to insist on linking such cards with income tax accounts for filing of returns.
What is ironic is that while the Supreme Court has been holding forth on whether Aadhaar should be made mandatory or not, it seemingly already is. And to a common taxpayer, with no benefits or reasoning behind it.
The Supreme Court has now said that Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory for government benefits. Fact is that it is already compulsory for the small but relevant section of honest citizens who pay taxes and fill the government coffers.
Citizens have been forced to get their fingerprints and retina scanned, and to give all their personal information to the government, whose accounts crash or are hacked on an almost daily basis. India is a country where the concept of privacy is still not well grasped.
That could be the reason for a sort of indifference to issues of surveillance and privacy. Such concerns are very immediate and real in Western nations. One has to wonder where such personal data will make its way.
In an age where information is everything, the whole nation has unwittingly submitted itself to eyes in the bedroom. If Aadhaar is meant to make life easy for people, it certainly does not seem so at present.
