Dear sir,

Let me give you an example. I own certain stocks. You want to tax me. I will sell some stock, and pay the Govt. You will use that money to pay some relief to the migrants?

Happy?

1/n https://twitter.com/ProfVarshney/status/1264070298577633281

Now my question to you is: the Govt owns trillions in stocks - BPCL, ONGC, SAIL, SBI, BoB. The total probably exceeds INR 20 trillion.

If you can ask me to sell my private hoard of stocks to pay for migrants, why don’t you ask the Govt. to do the same first?

Now you go back to the geniuses who drafted the letter and ask a simple question. When the Govt already has trillions in assets that are not so well managed by it, why doesn’t it sell those assets before asking private individuals to do so?

Why is it that the idea of taxing private individuals for more taxes [that they can only pay by selling assets anyway] come so easily to them but n to that Govt should sell it assets first?

That might help clear a few things for you.

Do note that it may not be possible for Govt to sell its stocks in a distressed market. But the same difficulty holds for private individuals as well.

Vijay Kelkar has proposed a workaround. Let Govt put all the stocks it owns into a divestment fund.

Let the fund be given as collateral to RBI which will then lend money to Govt . The underlying stocks can be sold over time and the money used to repay RBI. No distress sale but Govt still gets the money to help migrants now.

. @mkvenu1 had another suggestion. Let Govt issue gold bonds to temples [who hold gold collected from public] for say 20% of their holdings & use such gold either as collateral to borrow from RBI or simply sell the gold abroad. The money available could be 10 to 20% of GDP.

Get my point? I can add about half a dozen more such ideas of my own to the kitty. 2 should suffice.

Why is it that your friends immediately go 4 appropriating/taxing [both are the same really] the private wealth of individuals without asking the Govt to do the same? No, why?

Tell me in plain English why it makes sense to you to ask me to sell my stocks in Reliance to pay for migrant’s relief, rather than the Govt sell BPCL to do the same?

In what way is migrant benefited by my money more than that of Govt.? Which is easier to do?

If you see my TL I am very concerned that Govt do something to alleviate distress, not only of migrants but also landless labour & small firms going out of business. That is not the issue at all.

I even concede if the problems get bad you may need my money at some point.

But why is it that your friends eye my wealth first & not Govt. who holds vastly more under-utilised assets that are available for sale?

And if you have the time also ask yourself this: Why were you taken in by their ruse? No, why?