Income Tax

Yesterday on the 25th June, I got up early and went to The Income Tax Dept to submit the Income Tax Return Form. It was a cool morning at 8.15 am and the crowd was small. I was afraid that the crowd would be big, as the dateline for the submission of the forms would be 30.6.05.

You see, there are a couple of buttons at the entrance on the 12th floor of the Annex building of MPAJ, the office of the Income Tax Department. You press the button to suit what you want to do when you are in there; like press bitton A to see an officer to look into your problems, button C if you want to submit more than 5 forms, button D if less than 5 forms, and so forth.

I was in front of a particular lady, who had a load of forms, easily more than 50 forms and she correctly pressed the C button. As, I had less than 5 forms, I pressed the D button ahead of her.

So, we waited for about one or two minutes. There were easily more than 16 counters, but sadly only 3 were manned. Then the intercom called, " 1016 kaunter 10 ". So the lady who came later than me went to counter 10 to submit her forms.

All the while, I thought , since she submitted more than 5 and pressed the correct button, she was entitled to be served earlier than me. Then I heard the next intercom, " 2021 kaunter 14". Okaylah, soon the next one would be mine 2022. Hardly the next second, the intercom sounded again, " 2022 kaunter 10". But the lady was still there. Maybe she had finished in her submission, so I went to the counter.

Both the lady and the officer were surprised. The officer said unhappily, "Mengapa ke sini. Sudahkah nombor anda di panggil?" I thought the message across the big board in the waiting room saying, "Perkhidmatan dengan MESRA,M..."
I kept my calm and said, " Yalah, nombor 2022 kaunter 10, betullah. "

"Tunjuk nombor." he asked. So I showed him and took my forms to him and requested him to acknowledge in a photo-copy as stated in the submission form. As he has not completed his service to the lady, he said, " Nantilah, saya ada banyak borang sini."

So, I told him as the intercom voiced again," 2023 kaunter 14". "Tapi, encik , saya ingat saya datang lagi awal daripada gadis ini, dan saya yang dipanggil lewat. Macam mana ini? Lagipun dia banyak borang, saya hanya ada 3. Patutlah saya kena dulu."

Unhappily he took my forms and chopped acknowledged and grumbled a little bit..which I added in later, "Tak apalah tak perlu cakap lagi. Saya selalu datang sini. Nanti saya komplain, susah.."

Then the lady standing next to me cut in, " Aiyah no need to complain lah, what to complain. It's like that onelah. You don't know-meh." What a shit was this lady talking at that moment. I gave her a stare and thought of telling her, "Shut uplah and who are you to intervene here?" But the officer quickly gave me the acknowledgement chops and I had better got away before I exploded and started shouting at everyone.

As I came down from the 12th floor of the building in Pandan Indah, I saw a lot of people and scores of "officers" drinking and having breakfast at the mamak restaurant at the first floor. In my mind, I was wondering, "I thought they should be having breakfast before they started to work. How come they are having breakfast when they are supposed to be working now?"

Maybe I should have listened carefully to the lady just now, " No need to complain one lah. It's like that onelah" also means that "Mesra" perkhidmatan is rare and breakfast hour is extended to working hour right under the nose of everybody. I too sat at the mamak restaurant and ordered a "Teh Tarik Boh".