ADDING VALUE TO YOUR TAXES

The tedious job of filing your tax returns is done. And you've just paid your restaurant bill, inclusive of VAT; you've even managed to book your movie ticket, which costs as much as it does because of entertainment tax. But have you ever paused to think of how your taxes are used?

You've paid educational cess.

And yet, more than 75% of Indians have no access to secondary education. Those who do, go to schools where teacher absenteeism is the norm. Drawing salaries which you have funded, via the exchequer.

You've paid service tax.

But, millions of households lack access to the most basic of services: drinking water, sanitation; electricity and shelter. Not to speak of the shoddy service you get when dealing with government officials, whose salaries depend on you.

You've paid income tax.

And in doing so, you have helped underwrite a myriad of income and employment generation schemes. Yet, these schemes fail to provide meaningful employment.

You've paid wealth tax.

How much of it has percolated downwards, considering that 25 crore people continue to subsist below the poverty line? You've paid Value Added Tax. But value gets subtracted the money leaves your hands - for every hundred rupees that you pay to the exchequer, leakages along the way ensure that barely 15 rupees actually reach where they should; because of poor governance; because of inadequate public protest and pressure from below to the obvious lack of accountability above.

We add REAL value to your taxes.

By investing in a network of young activists working across India to check corruption, question wasteful government expenditure, and demonstrate effective ways of tackling health, education, livelihood, governance, disaster relief and rehabilitation and other issues at the grass roots.

We incur an average monthly expenditure of Rs. 2500 on each of the 170 activists we currently support, across ten States. They generally work in teams, varying in size from 3 to 10, depending on the spread of their work. Each team is led by a SRUTI Fellow, who is the main interface between SRUTI and the activist team.

Lend your support to the SRUTI Fellows and their teams who are battling immense odds to ensure that your hard-earned money does what its supposed to - to build the long-awaited village link road; to install the first ever hand pump in a remote tribal hamlet; to get the much talked of primary school off the ground; and to get teachers to actually attend school; to give children their stipulated mid-day meal;. . to see that the many development promises made by the government are actually fulfilled.

SRUTI's own overhead costs are met by institutional grants. Therefore, every rupee you give goes directly to the field. Donations to SRUTI qualify for 50% deduction under income-tax rules (Sec 80 G)

For more information, contact us at:

Society for Rural Urban and Tribal initiative

Q-1 Hauz Khas Enclave New Delhi 110016

Phone; 26964946; 26569023

E-mail: sruti@vsnl.com

Donations to SRUTI qualify for 50% deduction under income-tax rules

(Sec 80 G)