Navi Mumbai bizman gives creative vent to his taxation woes, produces film ‘Tax Free India’

NAVI MUMBAI: Like the clichéd “last straw on the camel’s back”, a Navi Mumbai-based dry fruits businessman, Subodh Shetye (57), became so harried after paying various govt taxes in the past 40 years, that he has now vented his entire life’s frustrations in a creative way by making a full-length Hindi feature film called “Tax Free India”. The Censor Board, however, is not amused.
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has refused to clear Shetye’s film on the ground that the film’s screenplay is “too amateurish; against the democratic govt policies” and that it “creates confusion in the present tax policies, and encourages public revolt”.

While Shetye has been given the option to approach the high court to get his film certified, he has decided to release it first on YouTube by the end of the month or early May, where the censor board’s jurisdiction does not hold.
“Since my teen years, I have assisted my family in our dry fruits business. I have seen how tax officials harass. Sometimes raiding parties show up and demand random amounts even if you have maintained all accounts and books; some vague clause will be quoted to extract more tax,” said Shetye, who not only produced but also acted as the protagonist in the film, which runs a little over two hours.
Adding that he may release the film on YouTube by month-end or first week of May. Shetye said: “We income tax, GST, excise, customs, property tax, professional tax, besides stamp duty if you are purchasing a property. And yet, India has to take a loan from the World Bank. Shouldn’t our tax system be more simplified and minimize corruption?”
He added that the revised tax system, which he dwells on in his film, will also reduce inflation.
One of his supporters, a city developer, said, “I have seen the rushes of ‘Tax Free India’, and it strikes me that the business and middle class pay so much tax. But still, most of our tax money is spent by the govt on political appeasement , or to redevelop already good roads and infrastructure so that contractors can benefit. Taxes and corruption are slowing down India. Is the govt scared to give it a censor certificate?”
American statesman Benjamin Franklin had once famously said, “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”.