Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts

Is tuition really needed for students?

Courtesy: Google
The aforementioned title is really a debatable issue and an issue that really needs an attention from the concerned authorities. I have been thinking and analyzing about the issue for so long. I could find both advantages and disadvantages from such practice. The society will be divided into sections who feel the good and bad about the issue. Nevertheless, this type of trend has become really rampant in Thimphu city.

Tuition is a good practice to guide the students to sharpen their saw, so that they can brighten their future.  However, I feel that the trend is decreasing the quality of education in the schools other than the benefits gained from tuition. Recently, I met with some students who were going for their tuition classes. I always had keen interest to interact with the young friends, so I asked them the reasons for going for tuition classes.

Half of the group argued me that; they are going for tuition classes because of the influence of their parents and relatives. The parents and the relatives of the student wanted the student to perform better in their studies whereby he/she can lead a better their lives better. In this case, I have no any arguments as I feel that parents care and love their students. No matter what the student feels, he/she will be able to grasp something.

However, another half told me that; they have no any other option as they will be equally competing with thousands of students in the country. They said that their teachers don't teach them well in the classes. They said their teachers are taking the tuition classes whereby they teach extremely well. I was shocked to learn these things from the students. However, this is not to insult and go against the teachers who are taking tuition classes and helping the students.

I was worried and had to think about the issue. I also discussed with my friends with the issue. My friends were surprised too about the issue and the trends of tuition in the country. They said me that the tuition has been banned in the country. However, the tuition business has been operating in the country for years. If the latter  is true and the truth lies in the comments of the students I met, I feel that the issue must be given attention. It is wrong on my part to base my understanding of the issue on the few groups of students I met. Nevertheless, I feel its the issue that must be given better attention than at present.

If the truth of such tuition practices lies in the say of my second group of students I feel there is strong and urgent need to be looked upon by the Ministry of Education and the concerned authorities. The Ministry must either ban the tuition classes or concentrate on the quality of education in the class room itself. In the other sense the teacher who takes the class of that particular student in the day time must not take tuition for that student in the evening. The other option may be to ban the tuition classes for the teachers and if need be let others who have the potential to guide take the chance. In this manner, I feel that the market will not get distorted. In the current trend of such practice, the families who could afford may not feel any pinch; however the poorer sections find very difficult and  challenging to meet the expectations of their students.

The post here as I said earlier is what I vividly feel and got some information from my young friend who go to the tuition classes. the post is not meant to complain anyone.

I am back........

I could vividly remember the day I have last posted. I know I have never lost interest to keep working in the blogging world. However, the circumstances had kept me dame busy for the days and months that I had to give much importance to my training while pursuing my Post Graduate Diploma in Public Administration in Royal Institute of Management.
The friend of mine Sherab Tenzin always had a time to encourage me to blog and make some changes with regards to my post. He was the one to constantly keep pushing me to resume blogging. I always loved to write my expressions and my experiences and I would take this opportunity to thank my dear friend for your encouragements and supports whenever and wherever possible

Most importantly, I would extend my sincere apology for my readers and followers for not being able to update my blog for so long. New year, 2015 has crippled with much hope and aspirations for me to update and share my stories for my readers and followers. I also feel that I may be able to share some of my research works

The days in my office may seem busy which may restrict me to update my post. I know and always reflect back to the Oath taking that I took to serve my King, country and People with full loyalty and dedication. As one of the civil servants in the country, I am obliged to provide the best public service. Nevertheless, I will find my own time to update my blog which will also help me in one way or the other to grow intellectually.

I personally and wholeheartedly wish all my bloggers a HAPPY BLOGGING and to fully enjoy in the world of blogging. Moreover, I would not forget to thank my followers and readers for sparing your precious time to read my posts. I would like to sincere pledge to keep updating my blog hereafter and have full hope that it will give some time pass for all of you.

Analyzing the taxation system - Part III

The aforementioned post title may become a cliche for some of my readers, yet this will be the last part of its kind in this blog. I have been so long from this blogosphere as I was involved vigoriously with my academic works. Nevertheless, I make a point to read blogs of some of the popular bloggers. This post may sometimes seem irrelevant, yet this is what I vividly feel.


Conclusion/Analysis:
Taxes affect price of goods and services. To a consumer tax is bad because one need to pay higher than his or her estimated consumer surplus. It will equally hamper the amount of production in the market but to a better cause what if that product has negative externalities? What if that externality adversely affects a group of people who are not responsible for it? Here tax should be answer to both the questions. It should internalize the externalities and it should serve as a mechanism to reduce the production so that spillover is reduced. When people are taxed, large part of their incomes are lost. After lots of their hard work when part of their share of income is irrationally lost, people get de-incentivized to work hard. BIT and CIT taxes in Bhutan are at flat rate of 30%. This is irrespective of the business size. In a way, this seems to be an unfair treatment to the small businesses earning a meager income while big businesses are at an advantage over the smaller ones. Further, we cannot determine who is rich and who is poor because there is an exclusion of irregular incomes like income from the sale of cordeceps by PIT system of Bhutan. Income through rents is hardly declared by many house owners in the country. The tax slap for exemption is relatively lower compared to increasing living cost and people’s disposable income. People with salary as low as Nu.8000 are liable for Personal Income Tax. This makes people of low income struggle to survive. People have just a part of their income after tax. As a result of which tax to citizen is a burden.

On the other hand, as mandated by the constitution of kingdom of Bhutan the government should ensure to meet the cost of recurrent expenditure from internal resources of the country. Tax forms a major part of contribution to the internal tax revenue. And paying tax as enshrined in constitution is also one of the fundamental duties of every citizen under state’s protection. Government while discharging their public goods and services to the citizen, they needs lots of budgets to finance it. Without tax they cannot discharge half of their duties to the citizens. When we say public goods and services it means those goods which are invaluable to the public but market do not produce it. Wide range of Pure or quasi public goods and services like social security through defense, health, education, roads, bridges, public infrastructure and etc should be financed by the government. This is because no ordinary citizen or business firms voluntarily finance it because they have no incentive to do it. Without imposing tax on citizen the benefits and social welfare from public goods and service cannot be given to the citizen. 

There are special group of people in the society who need the special attention from the state. This special group of people includes elderly, monks, disabled, vulnerable citizens and unemployed ones. To them tax should serve as redistribution mechanism so that wealth and income is redistributed to all the people. And tax through progressive means and through ability to pay theory can bring about social equality.  Tax is also used to intervene in the situation like market failure. When a market economy fails; not considering spillover effects, government through taxation should de-incentivize the market to produce more products that has negative bearings. Our economy is confronted with much instability and fluctuations, tax should serve as cyclical mechanism to counter act the fluctuations of market economy.

Taxes are also imposed to some products that have negative impact to the society. The sales of alcohol, drugs and some environmentally sensitive products must be imposed very high tax. This is because it will firstly help government to generate quite a lot of tax revenue and secondly it will help people change their behavior. In a meanwhile, the use of these products which are morally questionable will be soon reduced and people will come up with some sensible alternatives. Typical example in which Bhutanese government failed to tax high was on tobacco in recent years. They opted for a total ban which led to several people going to jail due to black marketing. People in the jail thus become social burden which need to be fed from governments revenue. In other countries this products are always taxed hundred percent and because of which there is no problem such as black marketing.

Even with all things said and done, it is never easy to say whether tax is good or bad. Tax is both a moral issue and an economic issue. All moral issues are not economical and all economical issues are not morally right. Therefore, the fate of deciding whether tax is good or bad is always left to the mercy of people’s decision. 



References:

Bagchi, A. (2005). Readings in public finance. New Dehli. Oxford University Press.
Bhatia, L.H. (2006). Public finance (25th ed.). VIKAS PUBLISHING HOUSE PVT LTD.
Bhutan, (2008). Bhutan 2008. Retrieved from http://www.bhutan2008.bt/
Fifth annual report of Lyonchen Jigme Yoeser Thinley on the state of the nation. (2013). Thimphu. Kuensel Corporation Ltd.
FitzRoy, F & Jin, J. (2010). Efficient redistribution: comparing basic income with unemployment benefits. University of St. Andrews
Gans, J., King, S.,Stonecash,R. & Mankiw, G.N (2012). Principles of economics (5th ed.). Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited.
Listokin, Y. (2009). Stabilizing the economy through the income tax code. Yale Law School.

Musgrave, A.R & Musgrave, B.P. (2004). Public finance and theory and practice (5th ed.). Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited.
National revenue report 2012-2013. (2013). Thimphu. Department of Revenue and Customs.
Sandmo, A. (n.d).  The effects of taxation on savings and risk taking. The Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen.

Waidyasekera,  D. D. M. (n.d). Role of taxation in development strategy. Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka.
Zilberman, D. (1999). Externalities, market failure, and government policy. Berkeley. University of California.
 

Managing conflicts

No one is born perfect in this world. As saying goes "No one is born as an island". In this regard we all have to depend on one another to live our life. In this journey of our life it is very sure that we may face with every circumstances. To this light, conflicts can happen anywhere with anyone. So, I feel its very important for all of us to have some knowledge to manage these conflicts effectively. Conflicts may be both constructive and destructive. If conflicts happen to be constructive, its well and good as it may bring good outcome. However, if it happens to be destructive we must be able to manage it before it becomes so destructive.

Courtesy: Google
So, I would like to share one of the stories being shared by one of my faculties in Royal Institute of Management; Mr. Thinley Namgyel, the Registrar of the institute who teaches Organizational Behaviour unit for us. It goes this way: Long time, almost few decades back in the world, there were two places that were separated by a big river. One of the groups lived depending upon the ship. The world for them was just a ship. Thei stories, poems, songs, etc...comprised the element of ship. On the other hand, the other group depended solely on goats. In the similar way, their stories, songs, poems were about the goats. 

It was one fine day when the children of both the groups went to play in the river banks. It was playfully or unfortunately that one of the children of goat's tribe threw stone to the other side of the river which directly hit on the head of one of the children of the ship's tribe. Soon both tribes' children went to report the incident to their respective parents or elderly people. The ship's tribe got really frustrated. On the other hand goat's tribe never accepted the fault and there was a big conflict that arose between the two tribes. They shouted to the other sides of the river and finally decided to have war. Both the tribes agreed and fixed a date to have war. They all; young and old gathered together and prepared for the war. Both the tribes prepared the best weapons they could manage. 

However, very few days before the war a very wise man from the ship's tribe suggested not to fight war ans he explained the war may lead to some disastrous situation. So, he suggested that both the tribes could select one strongest man each who will represent the whole group. Both the tribes agreed to the decision of the wise man. The very next day, two strongest men came face to face in the very small island-like place in the middle of the river. They were asked and rule was framed stating that they will fight as soon as the sun rise and stop fighting as soon as the sun set. They fought furiously for the very first day and as the sun set, both the fighters stopped. They both had to keep very close watch to each other thinking that the other may take chance to kill the other. 

Then fortunately the fighter from the goat's tribe asked the other fighter, "Why are you fighting so tirelessly?". The other fighter replied, " I fight for my two children, If i loose this fight, you all will make my children slaves". Then the fighter from the ship's tribe asked the same question " Then why are you fighting?". Then a fighter form the goat's tribe replied "Its same in my case. I fight for my children. I too have two children and if i loose you all will make them slaves." Both of them then realized that there was no use for them to fight. they felt if any one of the wins, two children of the looser will be slave. 

In the next morning, as the sun arose brightly, the group from each tribe gathered near the fighters to cheer up their own fighter. However to their surprise found both the fighters leaving towards their place. They asked the reason and the fighters explained them clearly. Finally the conflict was resolved and the groups lived happily again. 

I feel its very important for us to share our own opinions and thoughts before such things arise like in the above story. It will help us before the problem becomes too problematic like in the story.

Analyzing the Bhutanese Economy

It has been almost two months here in Royal Institute of management pursuing my Post Graduate Diploma in Public Administration. Therefore, I am very sorry to all my readers for not being able to update my blog contents. I have been extremely busy with my course as I was trying my best to get cope up with the course. Although the course is very difficult comparing to my degree course - Bachelors in Computer Applications, Some of my modules in my degree courses help me a little in my post graduate course. It is very difficult a times while dealing most of the time with economics' terms at the macro level. Most of the sessions are engaged discussing about the economy, administration and management at the national level.

Source: Google
I have been engaged vigorously for more than two weeks now to understand and deal with the Bhutanese economy in order to tackle my assignment on Introduction to Public Administration unit. The Bhutanese economy has opened up since 1961 with the launching of First Five Year plan. Bhutan got assistance for other donor countries after 1971 after joining the United Nations Organization. After that Bhutan has been recognized as the sovereign country and the country got several assistance from regional and international organizations/ countries. I have analyzed the Bhutanese economy in terms of the Bhutanese economy being opened to the other world. I have analyzed it with regard to economic factor, social factor, geographical factor, political factor and technological factor. 

To analyze more about the Bhutanese economy, I have also done SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the Bhutanese economy. I have found that Bhutan has got strengths in terms of getting electricity, political stability, atmosphere, etc.. which in terms directly or indirectly helps to boom our economy. About weaknesses, Bhutan lacks in terms of resolving insolvency to start business, improper procedural while starting business, etc.. Bhutan has got very good opportunities in hydro-power sector as the neighboring country increases demand for the electricity. The country has also got good opportunity in Tourism sector and FDIs as it really helps in generating the national revenue. However, Bhutan has threat for her economy because of global warming and also because of joining World Trade Organization is not analyzed and studied most profoundly. 

It was a good opportunity for me to learn and study about the indicators being set by the World Bank to analyze the ease of doing business. Our country is being ranked 141 out of 189 countries in terms of ease in doing business in the world. Its previous ranking was 146 and it shows a good indicator for the Bhutanese economy as its ranking has been increased by 5. In the SAARC region our country is being ranked 7th in terms of ease in doing business. However, our country is being ranked first in getting electricity in SAARC region.

It was very difficult for me to formulate strategies to help our country's economy grow. I had to write in terms of turning the threats of the Bhutanese economy into opportunities of the Bhutanese economy. I feel it is very important for all the Bhutanese to understand the economic situation of the country. It is must for all of us to know the current situation and work according to it.

True Gross National Happiness

Bhutan has its name and fame for the profound philosophy of Gross National Happiness. The concept is being coined by our fourth Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuk. Needless to say much on the aforementioned title; most of the people know about it. However, my post here is about some people whom I feel are really enjoying happiness in their lives.

Ap Sherab - He is working as a guard in one of the residences in Thimphu. I have seen and met him during one of Dawa Dangpai Losar (Bhutanese New Year Day) at Langjophakha. I was surprised to see him dancing ( mask dance) in front of the restaurant. I was silent for first few minutes and keep watching him dance. Later I was really eager to know the very reason for him to dance in such occasion. Then, I went inside the restaurant and inquired the owner. I was surprised and shocked to learn that he dances just for the fun and for the others to enjoy through his dance. He was totally tired, yet he resumes his dance when he sees people staring at him in that dancing attire. He really enjoys his life. He dances time to time when he gets free time and when he find s some group of people. People plying along the way to Taba or town spend sometime to watch him and slowly leave the scene with laughter and happiness. 

I write below about young children as I feel that they are very happy in their life.  Moreover, they give me immense pleasure when I get time to spend time with them. 

Khamsum - He is just four years old. I was overwhelmed when I saw him for the first time. The true happiness of this can be found from the cute smile that he gives when we try to interact with him. Moreover, I was surprised when I saw his hair style. The color of his hair (brown) was very interesting and it really suites a kid like him. When I called him for a pose, I was happy that he gave me such a pose like the modern and stylish boy. He always laughs and smiles; I find him enjoying his life with full happiness. 

Sonam Zangmo (Baby) - She is six years old. She studies in class I in Jigme Losel Primary School. She is youngest of six siblings in her family. Although she is a youngest in her family, she doesn't take much advantage of it. She knows much more about her life than what a kid like her is expected to know. She knows that she is a girl and maintains herself at this stage also. After interacting much with her, I came to know that she understands feelings of all people in her family and she tries to avoid unnecessary words. She feels that her word(s) may result into problems between her parents and siblings. Moreover, she has a good habit of sharing things to eat with others. Be it a piece of chocolate or a big biscuit, she shares it to others with smile on he face. When she gets free time, she plays with some selective friends - friends of her age that are joyful, good and clean. 


Dokdo - I always enjoy dealing with every section of people. Moreover, I fully enjoy with small kids. Small kids give me so much of inspiration, joy and pleasure. He is just three years old and it was tough time for me to get a snap of him. In his world he finds everything to be the same. Irrespective of the gender, he loves to be happy and enjoy with others. The most craziest thing he does is that he sings modern Bhutanese songs. He sings Uppa Jaggy style (adapted from Gangnam Style). Moreover, he is fond of dancing in accordance to some rock Bhutanese songs. 

I would not forget to thank all my above listed friends who have made my moment of life enjoyable and gave me so much of inspirations and lessons to learn.