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Bengaluru founder vows to move out of India after paying ₹4 crore tax: ‘System is flawed’
Rohit Shroff, founder of Aflog Group, vowed to move out of India in 2026, citing the “flawed” system of doing business in the country.
A Bengaluru-based entrepreneur has expressed frustration with India’s taxation and compliance framework, arguing that even the most law-abiding businesses are subjected to relentless scrutiny. Rohit Shroff, founder of Aflog Group, vowed to move out of India in 2026, citing the “flawed” system of doing business in the country.
₹4 crore tax paid
In a post shared on LinkedIn last week, Rohit Shroff claimed that he has paid ₹4 crore in taxes in the last 18 months alone.
He questioned why businesses that pay their taxes honestly are treated with suspicion.
“In the last 12–18 months, across my businesses, in GST and income tax, I’ve paid over $500,000 — roughly ₹4 crore — to a country that looks at its most compliant contributors with suspicion by default,” the Bengaluru-based entrepreneur wrote on LinkedIn.
The constant tax scrutiny
Shroff said that in India, only a small fraction of the population — less than 5% —- pays direct income tax. Yet, paradoxically, the system seems to repeatedly target this small group that is already compliant.
“When notices are sent, clarifications raised, and scrutiny intensified, the same small group keeps getting targeted. The compliant. The ones already inside the system,” he said. “This scrutiny is constant and layered.”
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He described this scrutiny as multi-layered, involving both local GST authorities and national income-tax teams. Despite this, businesses continue to comply, hiring teams to manage monthly GST filings, quarterly TDS, and annual income-tax obligations.
No benefits for business owners
The founder of Aflog Group noted that businesses get “zero tangible benefits” from the system. Even so, most business owners comply with the complicated tax framework.
Fighting the system often costs more in time and resources than simply submitting to it, so most entrepreneurs choose to pay, respond, and move on, he said.
Ultimately, Shroff raised a pointed question: if compliance comes with such burdens and yields no recognition or tangible benefit, what is the point?
A system that caters to the majority
Rohit Shroff said that the system is designed to cater to the majority, rather than the tax-paying minority.
He claimed that tax-payers are a politically insignificant group, and therefore easy to ignore or burden with overtaxation.
“The system is designed to win the confidence of the majority, not to enable the minority that thinks commercially, builds formally, and pays consistently. People like us are spread thin across the country, politically insignificant, and therefore easy to ignore or extract from,” the Bengaluru-based entrepreneur said.
“I’m done”
Finally, the entrepreneur vowed to move out of India in the new year. He cited the example of Indians who run successful businesses in other countries because they are not encumbered and discouraged by the system.
By contrast, the system in India doesn’t reward growth, it penalises it, said Shroff.
“When they leave, it isn’t because they hate the country. It’s because the system doesn’t reward growth. It penalises it. It slows it down,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
"I’m done. I’m done living the “building in India” dream,” the frustrated entrepreneur continued. “The goal for 2026 is simple: move out of the country and build elsewhere.”
“It hurts to say this, but at some point self-preservation matters more than slogans. This isn’t about patriotism. It’s about reality. The system is flawed. There is no real development, and there is no genuine ease of doing business here,” he concluded.
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)
