How far from the truth is it to say this Government is short on ideas to raise revenues? While it speeds up the process of implementing reforms, by clearing more projects and scaling up infrastructure, it uses dirty tactics to accumulate funds for them. When a road is constructed or a port is built, the ministry will claim credit and it should. However, nobody bothers to check where the funds came from to execute these projects. Does this Government have the courage to publicly admit that it trampled the dreams of citizens and siphoned their money to fund developmental projects?

The last thing on Earth the Government can do is to utilise a citizen’s assets for the National Agenda without one’s consent. It is planning to channelise unclaimed deposits in EPF, PPF, and Small Savings Schemes (SSS) to fund various projects of national interest. The present Government may not be as corrupt as the previous Government was, but, then, why it is desperate to demonstrate its moral hazards by doing something as devastating as channelizing personal assets of the poor/common man to the Nation’s coffers. This is not a case of Minimum Government and Maximum Governance.

India’s Finance Minister, who himself is a renowned lawyer, laid the foundation for this loot in Budget 2016-17. The Government proposed to set up a fund backed by unclaimed deposits in aforesaid schemes to finance the welfare programmes for elderly people. As reported by the Economic Times dated June 15, 2016, the unclaimed money lying in EPF accounts is worth a whopping Rs 43,000 crores. No wonder the Government is trying to acquire it, by hook or crook. At present, no other established source can feed it such a large sum of money in one go. The question is, why does anyone have to claim their money? Why can’t it be automatically paid back to a person it belongs to?

That being said, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has taken some initiatives to identify and reach the account holders who have failed to claim their deposits. The Government is wasting no opportunity to assert its achievements and has been shouting about them from the rooftop. Why the same approach cannot be adopted to tracing these account holders?

The Government may call this activity ‘appropriation’, but morally, the real story is about the Rs 43,000 crore Indian loot.

No wonder, the trade unions, including that of RSS, have been vehemently opposing this mindless move. The Government has been manipulating the middle class and the lower middle-class population for a while, trying to test their limits before actually forming a policy to garner more revenues from them. This is no coincidence that lately the Government is trying to introduce many changes to the EPF.

Has the Government tried studying why so many accounts remain unclaimed when the majority of the population of this country fails to satisfy their basic needs? Is it possible that corruption at the PF office been the real culprit? Or is it only the ignorance of account holders? Digital platforms are a new phenomenon and instances of unclaimed accounts mainly happened when Government departments were not digitally well-connected. Can the existing Government and even previous Governments confirm, in writing, that there hasn’t been any case of red tape, corruption, and ill-minded dilly-dally at the EPF offices when settling accounts?

If not, why is the common man being coerced to give up claim on his hard-earned money? There’s no word on what the Government would do if the account holder turned up one day.

You must have noticed, this article asks pertinent questions. But the Government and its elected representatives, in a democracy, must be questioned by the people! Unlike others who go gaga over the establishments and tall claims of Governments, we prefer to ask tough questions and have no qualms in acknowledging the Government for its achievements with the same unbiased fervour.

You can only hope that the National Democratic Alliance will avoid taking any undemocratic step.


 

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