NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been accusing corporate houses of “crony capitalism”, is now reaching out to them to raise funds for education and health sectors for the capital. He is appealing to business houses and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) “well-wishers” across the globe to donate to his government.
For the past year and after forming the Delhi government, Kejriwal has been accusing the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of favouring corporate houses. In fact, Kejriwal called the BJP-led central government a “property dealer” for corporate houses. He also indicted Modi of suppressing the rights of the common man to benefit corporate houses like that of Gautam Adani and the Ambanis.
Now, Kejriwal has taken a U-turn and is beseeching business houses for funds under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. The AAP government has failed to increase its Value Added Tax (VAT) collections, due to which it will fail to meet its 70-point agenda Kejriwal had promised in the run-up to the Assembly elections in February this year.
In 2014-15, the AAP government in Delhi collected Rs 19,000 crore through VAT. For 2015-16, its target is Rs 24,000 crore. In june 2014, the AAP government had collected Rs 1,605 crore through VAT. This June, the collections were Rs 1,509 crore, a decline of Rs 104 crore.
The drop in the collections has made the AAP government restrategise its policies. It raised VAT from 20 per cent to 25 per cent on petrol and from 12.5 per cent to 16.6 per cent on diesel in the city. Even then, the party feels it will be unable to meet the target.
The government has planned an Aam Aadmi canteen which will serve meals for Rs 10, free wi-fi across the city and 500 mohalla clinics, which will cost money.
Kejriwal’s government has doubled its budget for education, allocating Rs 9,836 crore, an increase of 106 per cent over the previous government’s budget. The health sector received the second highest allocation of Rs 4,787 crore.
Since the enactment of a new law in April 2014 mandating companies to spend two per cent of profit on CSR initiatives, estimates suggest that the spending can touch Rs 20,000 crore in the country. The AAP government sees this as an opportunity.
The decision to approach corporate for donations was taken at a high-level meeting of principal secretaries, secretaries and heads of departments, which was chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
“Create a page on the Delhi government’s website inviting donations from CSR budgets of Indian corporate and other well wishers from across the world,” Sisodia said in the meeting. A source said that Sisodia directed the secretary of information technology to create a separate portal linked to the Delhi government homepage listing schools and hospitals being set by the administration to which corporate houses can donate and get for online receipts.