Reema Mathew (07EC/07)has been the Vice President of Gregorian association of Social Workers... President of Rotaract Club of MGC. She has received the GOLD MEDAL in her College. Obtained the 9th Rank in teh University of Madras for her Masters in Social Work Program. She was also a union member when she studied Economics at Stella Maris College Reema Mathew (07/EC/07) and mam my number is again 07 in Mar Gregorios College Of Arts & Science, Mogapper West, Chennai (10/PSW/07 MSW(M&P)) Interesting Crystal mam! :)
“The Economics of Elections” With the elections taking centre-stage nationwide, it was more than apt to be part of a well orchestrated discussion on the “Economics of Elections” conducted by the Scientific Research Association for Economics and Finance and who better to deliver it, Mr. T.S. Krishnamurthy, on 26th March, 2014 at P.S. Higher Secondary School, Mylapore. For a budding economist such as myself, I was all ears to a stream of notions on elections, from an economic viewpoint. There are two important financial implications of elections: Government Expenditure and Political Party Expenditure (including that of the candidate’s). Even though there has been no official study undertaken on the cost of Indian Elections, there are certain basic facts that we ought to know. As far as election financial expenditure is concerned, if it is entirely for the parliament, the expenditure is met by the Central Government. If it is done jointly with the State Government, it would be a case of simultaneous elections where the expenditure will be shared by the Centre and State. The question now is, “What is the regulation we have with respect to political party expenditure?” In India, the election expenses incurred by a party have no ceiling limit, unlike an individual candidate, in whose case, there is a limit. Our constituencies aren’t uniform in terms of population.
Conducting elections varies from State to State as you’ll find in some states, the process is done in 1 phase and some in 6 phases. In the 2004 general elections, the maximum phase allowed was 5 in Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, and 4 in Bihar. The ideal states to conduct elections according to Mr. Krishnamurthy are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and to a large extent, the North-East States as they don’t cause any hassle. The key factors that make and mould a smooth election procedure are different attitudes, cultures, characters and personalities, to name a few. Does the Indian structure require any change? As Mr. Krishnamurthy rightly pointed out, any increase in the ceiling limit will only accentuate the current issue at hand. Hence, he proposes the need for a National Election Fund (NEF); where contributions can be made by any corporate or individual and they will get a 100% tax exemption! It may not initially be adequate to meet the cost of elections, but over a period of time a corpus can be developed to maintain a balance in the future. No member of the parliament can contest in the same constituency the 2nd time; they will have to move to another constituency. To conclude, the election expenditure incurred both by the government and political party & its candidates, needs to be seriously looked into. This is one of the major issues that the new government must address; the sooner they do this, the better it is to ensure that the cost of elections does not go up substantially!
Reema Mathew (07EC/07)has been the Vice President of Gregorian association of Social Workers... President of Rotaract Club of MGC. She has received the GOLD MEDAL in her College. Obtained the 9th Rank in teh University of Madras for her Masters in Social Work Program. She was also a union member when she studied Economics at Stella Maris College
ReplyDeleteReema Mathew (07/EC/07) and mam my number is again 07 in Mar Gregorios College Of Arts & Science, Mogapper West, Chennai (10/PSW/07
MSW(M&P)) Interesting Crystal mam! :)
“The Economics of Elections”
ReplyDeleteWith the elections taking centre-stage nationwide, it was more than apt to be part of a well orchestrated discussion on the “Economics of Elections” conducted by the Scientific Research Association for Economics and Finance and who better to deliver it, Mr. T.S. Krishnamurthy, on 26th March, 2014 at P.S. Higher Secondary School, Mylapore. For a budding economist such as myself, I was all ears to a stream of notions on elections, from an economic viewpoint.
There are two important financial implications of elections: Government Expenditure and Political Party Expenditure (including that of the candidate’s). Even though there has been no official study undertaken on the cost of Indian Elections, there are certain basic facts that we ought to know. As far as election financial expenditure is concerned, if it is entirely for the parliament, the expenditure is met by the Central Government. If it is done jointly with the State Government, it would be a case of simultaneous elections where the expenditure will be shared by the Centre and State. The question now is, “What is the regulation we have with respect to political party expenditure?” In India, the election expenses incurred by a party have no ceiling limit, unlike an individual candidate, in whose case, there is a limit. Our constituencies aren’t uniform in terms of population.
Conducting elections varies from State to State as you’ll find in some states, the process is done in 1 phase and some in 6 phases. In the 2004 general elections, the maximum phase allowed was 5 in Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, and 4 in Bihar. The ideal states to conduct elections according to Mr. Krishnamurthy are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and to a large extent, the North-East States as they don’t cause any hassle. The key factors that make and mould a smooth election procedure are different attitudes, cultures, characters and personalities, to name a few.
Does the Indian structure require any change? As Mr. Krishnamurthy rightly pointed out, any increase in the ceiling limit will only accentuate the current issue at hand. Hence, he proposes the need for a National Election Fund (NEF); where contributions can be made by any corporate or individual and they will get a 100% tax exemption! It may not initially be adequate to meet the cost of elections, but over a period of time a corpus can be developed to maintain a balance in the future. No member of the parliament can contest in the same constituency the 2nd time; they will have to move to another constituency.
To conclude, the election expenditure incurred both by the government and political party & its candidates, needs to be seriously looked into. This is one of the major issues that the new government must address; the sooner they do this, the better it is to ensure that the cost of elections does not go up substantially!
The above summary was written by Neerja P. of the IMA Econ class for which she won the 'best summary of the public Lecture prize' Congrats Neerja
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