As soon as reports came in yesterday that the Finance Ministry had added new rules for filing Income Tax returns, which included seeking unnecessarily intrusive information like expenses incurred on foreign trips, many people on Twitter took to express dissatisfaction over the move.
These users used the hashtag #SayNoToTaxTerrorism to protest against the move that also asked every taxpaying citizen of this country to give details of all their bank accounts.
OpIndia.com too wrote an open letter to the Finance Minister explaining why these moves could adversely impact the sentiments. We suggested some simpler alternatives to the Minister earlier today as these steps were taken apparently to check black money in the country.
Towards the evening came the news that the Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley had decided to review the earlier decision. This was perhaps one of the quickest responses to concerns raised by citizens online on any policy issue.
We bring to you some selected tweets with the hashtag #SayNoToTaxTerrorism that got the government to review its earlier decision.
It started with tweets pointing out why it was necessary to keep the Income Tax return filing simple:
https://twitter.com/YearOfRat/status/589117749248557056
https://twitter.com/SudarshanEMA/status/589100962435899392
Them some suggestions on what would be a better thing to do:
https://twitter.com/Vyomnaut/status/589105267092029440
https://twitter.com/waatho/status/589099265865043970
Some tweets expressing annoyance and anger at the decision:
https://twitter.com/IndiaSpeaksPR/status/589097598935371776
https://twitter.com/GappistanRadio/status/589096843037974529
An odd joke around the rules and on the Finance Minister:
https://twitter.com/rahulroushan/status/589096445816385537
A silver lining was also seen by some in the whole process:
https://twitter.com/BhimaniHeman/status/589121452814635008
https://twitter.com/Amanofreason_/status/589142578307596288
And a hope that was fulfilled when reports came in this evening that the government had decided to review:
https://twitter.com/a_fixed_point/status/589128312129204225