Taxes!

As usual, the end of April had the newspapers plastering photos of stressed out people trying to submit their income tax before the deadline. The one useful system the IRB ever invested in was the e-Filing. It has given me so much more peace of mind now that I could log on from the comfort of my home at any odd hour to do my submission. And the speed IRB has returned my excess tax payments since I started e-Filing has made me a convert! While I have always dreaded the hassle, my BE submission has always been relatively easy to do, due largely to the fact that I have only one miserable income stream! Anyway, filing my form for year 2009 was an unexpectedly great source of pleasure. Since I was jobless for practically 10 months last year, I am now expecting a mini windfall from IRB for all my excess tax paid! Mwah ha ha ha ha!!

Since the IRB is now evolving into a lean, mean, tax collection machine, I am just crossing my fingers that all that money will actually be used for something that will benefit the "rakyat" (woo hoo, political blogger already man... I actually used THE word! Now have to make sure my a** doesn't get hauled up to prison under ISA...). I've got a few suggestions if anyone cares to listen?

1. Invest in some project management / shift planning/ work scheduling system for all the government and government linked companies like JKR, Syabas, Indah Water, etc. so that they can for ONCE, coordinate all the road digging and pipe laying and what not repairs in one concerted effort. As it is, the constant digging and re-digging behind my house by different parties for various unknown reasons, at extremely close but different intervals, has left the roads patchy, uneven and full of potholes! Oh yeah, the system must also know how to optimize the best time to do all this roadwork with one main criteria - it should NOT disrupt the beauty sleep of nearby residents!!

2. Establish a good recycling/ collection system and set up more recycling centers at convenient locations. While I am no eco-warrior, I know having a convenient system in place would definitely encourage me to do my part. I heard they are doing some trials with recycling at Putrajaya - so, I hope it will not be a case of "hot-hot chicken shit" as a lot of initiatives in Malaysia tend to be.

3. Improve the public transport - need I say more?

4. Litter patrol - Set up elite teams of enforcers who can make people who litter do garbage collection duty with Alam Flora for a month! But then again, it’s just going to open up a whole new “rasuah”(man, I am getting dangerous here – used another sensitive word!) revenue stream....Hmmm, this needs some re-thinking....

Anyway, these are just a few random ideas – there are plenty more areas that our tax money can be put to use and I hope we will actually live to SEE some good materialize out of it! For now, I am rubbing my hands with glee in anticipation of my check from IRB...Yay!!