Ostentation is the order of the day
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It is time people realised the harsh macroeconomic realities
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If one can afford a lavish lifestyle, then one should be prepared to pay the market price for it.
— FILE PHOTO
MASS TRANSPORT: A scene at the Rajiv Chowk Delhi metro station. Public transport system is the answer to mitigate the rising fuel costs.
There is hue and cry over the Government’s action of hiking the prices of petroleum products. There are bold headlines in the print media and loud sound bytes in the electronic media and the Government is put on the dock by everyone, everywhere.
Inflation is the price that the country is paying today for letting cheap money float around in the economy. Increasing incomes saw a rush by commercial banks to resort to retail lending in a big way at “attractive” rates. This helped the Indian middle class to realise its long held dreams of owning homes, high-end cars and the entire range of whitegoods. The consumer goods and construction industries have never had such a good thing going for them as in the past few years. The nation had evidently begun living beyond its means.
Even as everyone laments for the common man, one cannot ignore the lifestyles of many in the country today. Ostentation is the order of the day. Weddings that used to be family events attended by a few close relatives and friends have turned into grand carnivals attended by hundreds and thousands from an extended circle. Money is spent lavishly on food, decoration and music to flaunt one’s economic status. The amount of pollution and wastage of precious foodstuffs and power are far from the minds of everyone involved.
Airports of today resemble railway stations with their chaotic disorder. Budget airlines may have lured many to switch from railways but the fact remains that so much more aviation fuel is burnt to carry the extra loads of passengers.
The automobile industry is another booming sector. Buying a two wheeler no longer involves a tortuous wait. Two wheeler owners are migrating to four wheelers and four wheeler owners to higher end models. Naturally the demand for petroleum products has shot up. Lifestyles too have changed with higher end televisions, music systems, washing machines, computers and other gadgets filling homes.
Anyone against the use of the term “ostentatious” for this style of living and viewing it more as an improved living standard than as living beyond one’s means, should also look at the harsh macroeconomic realities. If one can afford a lavish lifestyle, then one should be prepared to pay the market price for it. If a two wheeler offers better convenience than public transport, this will obviously come with a cost. If sparing a few lakhs of rupees to buy an SUV is not a problem, then why crib about paying more for diesel? If air travel has become a necessity, then why complain about increased fares?
While buying a car, the discussion veers around its features vis-À-vis similar models in the market, but no thought is given to the fact that the country produces only 20 per cent of its fuel requirements and the balance has to be imported costing precious foreign exchange.
While there is demand for subsidised petroleum products, it is not realised that such subsidies only increase the fiscal deficit and the burden will have to be borne by a larger section of the community.
There is nothing called a free ride in an economy. Facilities such as private vehicles always come with a price tag. A feasible alternative to private vehicles is an efficient public transport system or another mode that does not depend on fossil fuels.
P.T. KUPPUSWAMY
Chairman CEO, Karur Vysya Bank
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