In the last Tamil Nadu election, DMK Manifesto was the hero (at least that was the claim). It certainly contributed to DMK's victory. Many of us saw pendulum swinging from AIADMK to DMK after release of this manifesto. The DMK kept his promise distributing free Television sets. Conservative estimates put the total cost for Free TV distribution so far north of 20,000 cores.
On top of this, Government spends on money on subsidized rice, free houses, so on. Let us dive into details.
The Government needs to generate revenue to meet this obligation. There are not many ways to generate this revenue. Government gets money from Central Government which is collected through Income Tax, State can levy Sales Tax, Commercial Tax, etc. The next option is borrowing money. Tamil Nadu given its position in Central, can do some arm twisting to get more than its fair share. There is a limit for this. The second option is increase the state taxes on various products which are sold in Tamil Nadu. Ultimately Tamil Nadu consumers pay this. This is happening. The major chunk of money comes from Alcohol sales. The next option is borrowing money from various sources. If we do this beyond our means, Tamil Nadu should go bankrupt when it cannot meet its obligation. One hopes that Central Government will rescue the state if that ever happens. If that ever happens, it is making other states to pay for us. This could create heart burns in other states. The bottom line is public needs to pay one way or other. It is not REALLY FREE in that sense.
There are lot of negative consequence on the society. The first and foremost is alcoholic addiction in the society. In general, Governments tax more on alcohol / tobacco and divert the fund to fight addiction and for educating public. Here using it for addicting public on freebies. This money can be used for various things such as building roads, spend on education, address power issues by building new plants to increase capacity, provide clean / running water, toilet facilities and so many things. This should be taken to public in a correct way. At least one courageous person started this. Hats off to him. (http://nallapathivukal.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post_18.html)
We all know Tamil Nadu politics runs on cutting (kick back is the appropriate word). The standard rate is 5-10%. Applying the same thumb rule, we are talking in the range of 1000-2000 crore cutting. This may be nothing compare to 2G scandal. Spending this money on infrastructure will bring in more industries and hence jobs, jobs will bring more government revenue. The cycle continues.
This can be used to train people on trade which can fetch better jobs. Government also should preserve the agricultural land otherwise, it will lead to food shortage. This is a different topic to tackle.
This is not the end, DMK has long term vision on this. That is the exactly the reason why they wanted communication ministry in central. DMK Leadership and his family wants to control the whole media in the south. Free TV paves way to capture market share in DTH and cable networks.
Let us encourage people like Mr. Vijaykumar (Read the below blog to learn more about him) and steer the government away from disastrous path.
Thanks to http://nallapathivukal.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post_18.html
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