Friday, March 27, 2009

Indians Where is your Rs. 51259.85 crores gone

What is the Govt. doing with all our money ?
According to the Comptroller & Auditor Generals report on their website http://www.cag.gov.in/, Chapter 2 Comments on Accounts, the following glaring findings are documented

Section 2.2 Unascertainable unspent balances in the accounts of Implementing agencies

For the year 2007-08 , the Union Govt. made a provision for transfer of central plan assistance of Rs. 51259.85 crore directly to state/district level autonomous bodies, authorities societies etc for implementation of centrally sponsored schemes. These have not been spent fully by the implementing agencies and lie unspent in their accounts.

The report clearly say "the aggregate amount of unspent balances in the accounts of the implementing agencies kept outside Govt. accounts is not readily ascertainable. The Govt. expenditure as reflected in the accounts to that extent is therefore overstated"

Where is this Rs. 51259.85 crore gone ????

Section 2.3. Opaqueness in Govt. accounts

Scrutiny of Union Govt. Finance accounts 2007-08 disclosed the Rs. 20273.52 crore under 28 major heads of accounts was classified under minor head '800-other expenditure' in the accounts constituting more than 50 % of the total expenditure under respective major heads.

This indicates a high degree of opaqueness in the accounts, the report says. It also says that the existing structure of the Govt. accounts does not truly reflect the current activities of the Govt. in these Ministries /Depts.

What all is the Govt. hiding from its people ???
What is it really doing with the tax payers money ???

Section 2.4 Understatement of Balances under Universal Service Obligation Fund

The USO fund was set up in April 2002 for achieving universal service objectives of increasing tele density in rural and remote areas. The resources for this are raised through universal access levy which is payable by all telecom operators under various licences

A total Universal service levy of Rs. 20404.44 crore was collected during 2002-03 to 2007-08 by the DoT but a disbursement of only Rs. 6371.44 crore was made from the USO fund. Thus the closing balance of the fund on 31st March 2008 should be Rs. 14099 crore as against the NIL balance shown under that head !!!! The report says that "closing balance of the USO fund as on 31st March 2008 was therefore understated by Rs. 14033 crore "

hmm....

The report also says that this matter was presented to the parliament but no action has been taken

Where has this Rs. 14033 crore gone ???

Section 2.5 Overstatement of capital expenditure

The Govt. transferred Rs. 6500 crore in 2006-07 and Rs. 6000 crore in 2007-08 to the Social and Infrastructure Development fund (SIDF) for initiatives like upgradation of industrial training institutes, training of farmers etc. Thus entire amount was booked as capital expenditure in the accounts of these 2 years

The report says that examination of the expenditure of Rs. 3447.75 crore incurred during 2007-08 disclosed that Rs. 1586.75 crore was of revenue nature. It says that capital expenditure in the Consolidated Fund of India 2006-07 was thus overstated to the extent of at least Rs. 1586.75 crore. For 2007-08 capital expenditure of Rs. 6000 crore is overstated

This means that the Govt. is fooling us by telling us that they are spending our money on development where as they are really spending it on something else. Where has this money gone ?

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Today is World Water Day - March 25th, 2009

Water

  • Don't waste water (usable, drinking etc.)... one drop per second, is equal to, 10,000 liters per year. That is about 60 days of individual water usage....
  • Just take bath once a day....
  • Make sure water is recycled to use it for plants, garden etc...
  • Do not use water (which we see everyday morning in front of shops) to clean footpaths etc..
  • Remember, water once lost cannot be got back!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Tata Nano launch today - March 23, 2009

I was reading this news, and also discussed in Twitter by certain people whom I am following... Tata Nano Launch, buyers to pay full amount on booking . Never in the world for any car, people have paid full amount to book, except Tata group. Earlier they did it with Tata Indica launch in 1998.

Definitely this is a middle class family car!

It is going to be an easy upgrade for the upper side of the bike owners.

The current bike sales in India is about 19 lakh units per year says zigwheels.com, with values ranging from Rs 35,000/- to Rs 1.5 lakhs.

So the upper end guys, upto 20% of current new bike owners, would look for a car at home! That too at the same cost.

Let us look at economics of wondering to own a car. The insurance and maintenance would be double than a bike. A family of 4 can travel at per kilometer rate of about Rs 4/- within city. Calculate at 20 kms per liter of petrol at Rs 45 and maintenance at about Rs 15,000/- for the whole year..... with a run of about 50 kms per day.

50 x 365 = 18250 kms, costing petrol of (45 * 18250/20) Rs 41,000/-. Insurance at about Rs 3600/- So in all about Rs 60,000/- for 18250 kms. That is about Rs 4/km with misc. exp.

That is double the cost of running a bike, and managing family in bus/auto.

They are expecting a 3 lakh car booking. First 50,000 cars to be sold in next 12 months. Particularly, BJP in Gujarat will show case it well, as the Sanand plant is going to come there.

Obviously some one, would come in with a black market plan to offer at a premium, if they win the lottery of allotment.

My best guess is, the fizz would run out, after one year and it would be normal delivery.

So I will wait!