Bengaluru Techie Claims Traffic Is The Real Hidden Tax, Wasting 2.5 Months Yearly

The post has deeply resonated with fellow commuters. (Photo Credit: X)

A Reddit post has gone viral for highlighting that most Bengaluru residents have to pay a hidden tax in the form of long hours of traffic. The post, made in r/Bengaluru community on Friday, narrated the story of an Oracle employee living in JP Nagar, Bengaluru.

“He earns Rs 28 lakhs a year. (RSU not included) On that, he pays Rs 6.5 lakhs in income tax. Another Rs 1.4 lakhs in GST on everyday expenses. Together, that’s more than three months of his work each year… just for the country. His office is 14 kilometers away. It should actually take 30 minutes. But in reality it takes 90. Add the time lost in traffic: 2.5 months a year,” the post read.

Highlighting the growing urban frustration, the Reddit post talked about the pain of traffic congestion and poor infrastructure in top tier cities like Bengaluru. For a 14 km journey, while it should ideally take around 30 minutes of one-way commute, the employee spends 90 minutes in traffic.

2.5 Months Wasted In Bengaluru Traffic:

That’s an extra hour each trip, which translates to 10 hours a week and 40 hours a month. He is spending about 720 hours a year in traffic while commuting to his office, which is about 2.5 months.

The post argued that such employees are already paying a significant portion of their taxes for smart cities and improved infrastructure.

“But planning went wrong. The money often went elsewhere. He ended up paying the hidden tax, not even having time to look back and introspect,” the post read.

The post ends by asking a simple question: Are you also paying the traffic tax?

‘Bengaluru Is An Orphaned Child’

Just within hours of posting, it has deeply resonated with fellow commuters who raised their similar concerns.

“Yup. I always tell this to my team. If you put an engineer working in Bangalore in any foreign country with cleaner air and no traffic, they will become 20% more efficient with no other changes. Everyone is always coughing, sneezing, wheezing and taking leave for their children falling ill but still say air pollution is not that big a deal,” a user commented.

Another person said that people keep complaining on social media, but nothing ever changes.

“Even a civil war cannot fix all these issues, because people have no unity in our country,” the user commented.

Others also echoed similar sentiments, with some users pointing that people are being additionally burdened with the E20 policy.

“Instead of investing in the future of the city, Bengaluru has become an orphaned child put to hard labour and no pay,” another comment read.