Sunday, 11th January, 2009
The Aam Badaam
Your weekly round up of currant affairs and assorted nuts for raisin awareness
Aam Badaam is a fortnightly satirical news magazine. All rights are reserved and all articles are original works of Aam Badaam staff. All Indian names used in stories are fictional
If you would like to contribute a story, email us at editor@aambadaam.com
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News in Brief
“Singh is King” is to be Congress’s slogan for upcoming elections
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Court declares that airline pilots are not eligible for frequent flier points
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A leopard that had escaped Borivilli national park yesterday, was found hiding in Mumbai Zoo
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Mr 8%, Zardari cuts his fee to aid recession
The Prime Minister of Pakistan has announced that his usual 10% ‘tax’ for approving projects, will be cut to 8%, to help Pakistan deal with the global financial melt-down. Zardari was popularly known as Mr 10% during Benazir Bhutto’s days as PM due to the special ‘fee’ he levied on any major project before it was allowed to proceed. Swiss authorities had frozen Zardari’s accounts pending a corruption trial in Pakistan however, thanks to his sudden rise as Prime Minister, the charges were dropped. Now he wants to give back to the people.
“Prime Minister Zardari is proud to announce that he is lowering his usual 10% fee to 8%, to help in this time of economic crisis. He may revise this again once the economy picks up” said a Government spokesman yesterday. Newspapers in Pakistan reacted positively to the news with one headline praising Zardari directly ‘Zardari proves he is 20% less corrupt than expected”.
”For you I’ll make it 8%”
Leading Pakistani economist, Mullah Prasad, pointed out that with the value of projects also dropping due to world recession, Zardari’s move is even more generous, “he is now only taking 8% of a smaller amount. He is like a modern day Robin Hood. We desperately need this stimulus especially since our fiscal stimulus has been wiped out by army spending”.
Pundits in India have also looked at the latest Zardari move with envy. “Our politicians don’t take a structured approach to the special ‘taxes’ they levy. We don’t even have a set rate. At least in Pakistan it’s a lot more clear cut and even special ‘taxes’ are used as a macroeconomic tool” said Ginti Singh, economist with City Bank.
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