NANO IS TRULY PEOPLE'S CAR

SUBSIDISED BY THE PEOPLE OF WEST BENGAL

DEFINATION OF DEVELOPMENT REDEFINED FOR SINGUR

NANO is now known as people's LAKHTAKIA car that will be sold at Rs. One lakh each. Well, let us examine the facts only on the basis of the information that is available from the tripartite agreement that the Tatas have made with Government of West Bengal and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation known as WBIDC.

It is being publicized that in order to stop Tatas from going to Uttaranchal or Himachal Pradesh, the extra ordinary favours are granted to Tatas. While it is the package of central government that is available to all and where government has nothing to pay from its pocket, here in Singur, it is the people of West Bengal who are to bear the costs. Unfortunately, there is large section of the people in the state who are still under the illusion that Tata Motors is a magic wand that will solve the problem of West Bengal's unemployment problem and bring riches to the state. Let us look at it point wise to build our own opinion.

The said facilities are for all who fits in the criteria and not exclusively for the TATAs. But here it is exclusively for TATAs alone and no one else.

Every thing is done in the name of DEVELOPMENT. When Industries Department speaks about development or the state makes loud announcements, it says it will generate additional revenue for the state and employment opportunities will be created. Let us see the facts where we will see that the state government has redefined development, that is collect taxes and duties from the common man and hand it over to the house of Tatas all in the name of inviting a small investment of only Rs. 1500 Crore.

1.      Granting lease of nearly 1000 Acres of land on the express way, just on the outskirts of Kolkatta, on a token amount only. The land is worth 600 Crore plus at present due to its proximity to both Railway as well as Airport.[Remember, at Utttranchal or Himachal, such facility it self would be a luxury]  

2.      Concessional power @ Rs. 3 per unit against the current rates of Rs. 4.15 per unit. Any increase in the tariff by more than 25 paisa per KwH, government should reimburse the same.  

3.      Rs. 200 Crore loaned to Tata Motors within two months of inking the MoU in May, 2006. This amount carries an interest at a laughably low rate of only 1% per annum. The amount is to be paid back in five equal installments beginning from 2027. By that time the amount could grew to Rs. 3000 Crore on its own if parked in fixed deposits. The decrease in the value of rupee would also be an additional loss to the state.

4.      Government of West Bengal will reimburse all the money that Tata Motors pays as Central Excise Duties for 10 years.

5.      Government of West Bengal will also reimburse all that money that the Tata Motors has to pay towards corporate income taxes in full for first five years and 30% for next five years. This will also run in to hundreds of crores.

6.      All the Value Added Tax [VAT] and Central Sales Tax [CST] that will be collected by the Tata Motors from the customers who buy their cars, but will be paid only after 31^st Year at a nominal name sake interest of 0.1% per Annum. This will also run in to several hundreds crores.

This can be described in very simple words that who ever buys any car and pays taxes on that, the money is retained by Tatas for thirty years and instead of depositing in the exchequer within 45 or 90 days, will deposit after 31 years. If the amount of money that the Tatas will retain during the thirty years, it will amount to huge sums of money to which 1500 crore will look pigmy.

7.      The interest payable by the Tata Motors to build the project is also to be reimbursed by the state government.

The above facts are not made available any where else in the country. State has now a cheque book ready to pay Tatas regularly and a separate section is required to be set up to manage the affairs of receiving bills from tatas be it on payment of interest on the investment made by Tatas to construct their project at Singur, Electricity tariff account, Excise Duty account, Corporate Income Tax account etc.

The other section has to be set up at the office of the commercial taxes to compute the Value Added Tax and Central Sales Tax that the state would have to collect in the 31^st year without any interest.

Truly speaking, Nano is a people's car, heavily subsidized by the people of West Bengal. Any one buying a Nano from any where in India, people of West Bengal will pay for from their pocket the excise duty on behalf of the purchaser and will also pay income tax to Tatas to pay them the corporate income tax. Can we find a parallel of such facilities any where else in the world!   

This is the redefined definition of development that the Industries Department of West Bengal has discovered.  Great.

Pravin Patel.