No case for Swachh Bharat cess

The well-intentioned Swachh Bharat scheme (Clean India campaign) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi got off to a rousing start rousing hopes that an effective programme would be launched to promote cleanliness all over India.

Apart from Modi, several so-called celebrities including film actors, sports celebrities and businessmen took the broomstick and swept in front of cameras. But, it appears nothing really happened beyond this.

The streets all over the country continue to remain unclean and as an eyesore, with the dumped and overflowing garbage seen everywhere emanating a nauseating smell.

It appears that nothing has really happened for the better on the ground.

The problem was that after launching the scheme, the Modi government has not come out with any imaginative and viable programme of action. While it was stressed that the streets and the roads should be cleaned and the garbage removed, no scheme was announced on how the collected garbage would be ultimately disposed off on a national scale.

At present, the garbage collected is mostly disposed in dump yards at chosen places in all towns and cities, breeding mosquitoes and giving rise to unhygienic conditions in and around the area. When the dumped mass becomes too large, it is be set on fire emanating dark smoke and more dirty smell. This is really what is happening in India today almost in all places.  

There are excellent possibi-lities of converting such garbage material into value added products. Developed countries have implemented such projects successfully. For example, in Canada, methanol (an important chemical which is now imported in India to the level of around 1.3 million tonne per annum) is produced from sewage.

There are many other possibilities such as cultivation of algae using sewage water, which can lead to production of bio-fuel. Not much headway has been made in India towards the production of power from garbage whereas large capacity power plants are operating abroad with the help of garbage material.

The need of the hour is for the government to lead the country by developing and encouraging appropriate schemes for the utilisation of municipal solid waste and sewage water. Unfortunately, such proactive policies from the Modi government are conspicuous by absence.

In the absence of techno-logically sound and viable schemes for utilisation of garbage material, Modi’s clean India campaign is now caught in a vacuum.

Several schemes have been submitted to the government by professionals, describing the technological and economic aspects but there is no indication that the Centre has evaluated such suggestions to take them forward. It is evident from the fact that no viable scheme has been implemented  on a national scale so far.

A non-starter

While the Clean India campaign virtually remains a non-starter, the levy of Swachh Bharat cess has come as a shock. What the government needs today are schemes and ideas; and collecting cess without schemes is similar to the act of putting the cart before the horse.

Already, there is a widespread view that the service tax levied of 14 per cent is quite high. As the industry and commercial establishments pass on the service tax burden to the consumers, it inevitably pushes up inflation. Ultimately, the burden is borne by the common man.

It is extremely unconvincing that merely by imposing the Swachh Bharat cess, the Clean India campaign would move forward. By imposing such cess, the NDA government is following the age old practice of the governments levying tax under one pretext or the other to constantly increase its revenue without examining the options of reducing and optimising its expenses.

One cannot be blamed, if he/she would suspect that this cess has been levied using Swachh Bharat as an excuse to improve the government’s revenue. The government should realise that just as it has a budget, every family in the country has one too.

Whereas the government can levy tax to increase its income even indiscriminately, the common man does not have such an option, for his family income would only get strained.

One can hear people suspect that there may be a “yoga cess” shortly, to implement the yoga scheme of the NDA government! The Centre should realise that Swachh Bharat cess is inappropriate and should withdraw it immediately.