49A and the sarkari monsters

the income tax department of the government of india deserves a
nuclear bomb dropped on it. i am a student who has to recieve some
amount from an organisation, for which i need a PAN number. my annual
income is certainly not taxable. i don't understand why they've made
this rule that everyone needs a PAN number, even to open a bank
acount. now the PAN form is called "49A", sarkari style, thanks to a
friend who told me. my friend told me that the one-page form can be
downloaded from the income tax dept website. one page my foot! it is
14 pages long, of which half describe how to fill the other half. the
first page is completely incomprehensible. then there are questions
such as "Your Sex: M__ F__" (Tick only one.)

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Then they want a black and white mugshot of mine. But why b/w in the
21st century?

And then they will not tell you where to submit the form. They have
dozens of ofices in delhi, and the idea of entering any one of them
scares me. one sarkari official, a monster with no pretensions of
being a public servant, will direct me to another sarkari monster.

the site has a search engine, which, of course, does not work. it has
a link called helpline, which has no helpline numbers or email ID,
only a pompous "Message"
by A.Balasubramanian, Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes,
Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, North
Block , New Delhi-110 001, Tel:301 2648. It reads: "I am sanguine that
the Commmissionerate will be able to effectively redress urgent tax
problems of fixed income group, corporate sector, foreign investors
and others... I wish this user - friendly interactive focal point all
success in providing advise and assistance to tax payers in the
shortest possible time."

You know there's this novel on the subject of our sarkari monsters,
called "Mammaries of the Welfare State". A sarkari institution called
the Sahitya Akademi just gave this novel an award, a couple of years
after the novel was first published! The sahitya akademi has no sense
of irony!

When i have figured how to fill 49A, I will make copies of it and send
it to every Income Tax office by post, with a 14 page explanation
letter about why i am doing this. let them have a taste of their own
pill. just that i will never get a PAN number that way.

hmmmmm, is there anyone here who's a income tax office dalal?

s
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