Open Letter to Minister of Road Transport & Highways & Shipping of India

Open Letter to Minister of Road Transport & Highways & Shipping -  Shri Nitin Gadkari Ji

“An indomitable Nitin Gadkari for whom politics is an instrument of socio-economic transformation is the Union Cabinet Minister of Road Transport & Highways as well as Shipping….”

Respected Sir,

Here is an opportunity to fulfill your Mission of Socio-economic Transformation, an unimaginable state–A Tax Free Society !

And that shall be the biggest gift to humanity, possible with a little change in our thinking and planning.

Only the day before I was conversing with my Doctor and the pain I found in her reflects the pain of every being – rich and poor, owner or an employee, even a Govt officer, all alike. Her agony was that after putting in hard labor day to night she gets some meager amount as performance incentive but GST is deducted from that amount too and that is in addition to Income tax she pays and tax on everything that she buys. You and I too are paying all kinds of taxes but being accustomed of it and accepting it as a part of life we do not feel the pain. But believe me as a human being even the richest person feels the pain when he has to part with his hard earned money by way of taxes.

I have been working on this concept for last several years (in fact from UPA2 days when huge scams were coming out every other day) and now I am convinced I have a solution to it. My research says that our country owns numerous kinds of Natural Resources and concrete and financial assets built since the start of civilization and being built every day. The cumulative value of these assets and resources is humongous but it remains unknown.

Central and State Governments share among themselves various kinds of these Natural Resources and Concrete and Financial assets  BUT THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT KNOW THE IMMENSE VALUE OF THESE ASSETS WHICH IS IN TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS. (Imagine the value of 32.86 lakh sq km of land, or 7 lakh sq km forests, a renewable asset, or the largest network of railways, or the largest network of highways and so on).

My conviction is that -

1.     The Governments should have been earning revenue by producing Goods and Services from these Resources and Assets for welfare of their people directly or by leasing them to private sector. But Governments have taken the easy course of extracting Taxes from their hapless subjects as per the practice from ages.  Government is earning a miniscule (10%) income from the humongous amount of resources at its disposal, – 3 lakh crores in 2019-20 as per budget estimate, rest 90% comes from various kind of taxes and borrowing.

2.    I have found a Methodology to evaluate all natural resources and concrete and financial assets.  This methodology shall facilitate evaluation of all assets and resources of each and every village, town, city and metro of the country (6.58 lakh Geographical Entities as per 2011 census), both in public and private domain.  By consolidating value of these Entities we can compute value of assets that every Ministry owns and controls. It shall facilitate knowing Net Worth of the Nation by enlisting all Assets and Liabilities of the nation in the form of a Balance Sheet.  Balance Sheet is the basic guide for every commercial enterprise but Governments do not make it or have not been able to make it though several attempts have been made by many countries in the past.

3.    Once value of resources at the disposal of Ministries is known then the second logical step would be to ask the Ministers and learned bureaucrats of each Ministry and State to Redesign their work plan in a manner that they start generating commensurate revenue from the resources at their disposal just as in private sector. In case of need of new ideas, CEOs from private sector can be appointed through competition between various aspirants and appointing the ones who give most practical and most paying earning plan. Fundamental difference between a CEO and a Government Minister is that while the former is an EARNER the later is a SPENDER. The CEO is obliged to give commensurate return to his employer from the resources provided to him. The Minister has no obligation to earn; he simply gets money from budget to spend.

4.    Once the Ministries start earning from resources at their disposal pressure on budget shall start reducing and a day shall come when their earnings shall be optimized and they shall start contributing to the exchequer.

5.    I have started writing Open letters to our Ministers and putting them on my blogs for public participation. I am pointing out to the Ministers the huge stock of assets they possess and exhorting them to earn revenue from these assets to meet their revenue expenses in the first instance - A transformation from SPENDERS to EARNERS.

6.    With the increase in revenue from assets pressure on taxes and borrowing shall start reducing. And a day shall come when there shall be no need of tax revenue and borrowing. In fact country shall transform in to a Lender from being a Borrower.

7.    Result a Tax free society – biggest gift to humanity.

8.    Now coming to your Ministry sir. Your demand from the exchequer for the current year is as follows:

	Actual 2017-2018			Revised 2018-2019			Budget 2019-2020
	Revenue	Capital	Total	Revenue	Capital	Total	Revenue	Capital	Total
Gross	18099.15	99053.68	117152.83	19866.34	136126.38	155992.72	21686.98	142762	164448.98
Recoveries	-7836.79	-48301.28	-56138.07	-9804.53	-67560.69	-77365.22	-10696.01	-70737	-81433.01
Receipts	...	...	...	...	-2	-2	...	...	...
Net	10262.36	50752.4	61014.76	10061.81	68563.69	78625.5	10990.97	72025	83015.97

Sir, the CEO in me tells me loudly that this working can be modified with some ingenuity. The Ministry is spending this amount for producing valuable goods and services. A business model can be developed whereby the goods and services that are being producing pay for its cost. Why this cost should be recovered from tax revenue?  

Demand on budget cannot be eliminated totally in a year but at least a beginning can be made to reduce dependence on budget. By and by an alternative business plan shall emerge that shall turn the table – from drawing from budget to contributing to budget. Just give it a serious thought.

Sir, I shall feel obliged if you kindly permit me to forward to you my detailed Research Paper running in to some 650 pages for your review and turning it in to an implementable plan. I also request for a personal audience of a few minutes whenever you are in Mumbai.

With respectful regards,

M.K. Agarwal