Blog

Wednesday, 26 February 2020

BMC proposes : Hawkers will dispose ?

Context :

To put hawkers in place, BMC plans to geo-map slots and put them online

Highlights :

Ø Using GIS, BMC wants to map hawking pitches for vendors. Since the information will be available online, locals can check and report violations

Ø BMC inspectors are collecting information on “ Pitch Dimensions “ and exact location ( mapped by latitude and longitude )

Ø BMC’s 2014 survey of hawkers found 11,000 with licenses and an additional 15,000 to be eligible. Thus, after pitch allotment, the city will officially have 26,000 hawkers

Why this skepticism ?

Ø There are nearly 3 lakh hawkers in Mumbai, and according to conservative estimates, each pays anywhere between Rs 20 and Rs 100 in hafta every day.

Ø This means up to Rs 1.5 crore in cash changes hands every day to protect the businesses that have taken over Mumbai's streets. / Nov 22, 2017

[ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/rs-1-5cr-hafta-changes-hands-daily-to-allow-street-hawking/articleshow/61745661.cms ]

What is most likely to happen ?

Ø For those balance 2.74 lakh hawkers , ( as with those 26,000 licensed hawkers ), plying their trade, is a “ matter of life and death “. On the day he cannot hawk, his children will go to bed without dinner !

Let us not fool ourselves by thinking that these 2.74 lakh “ Unlicensed “ hawkers can be forced to leave Mumbai. If anything, this number will keep going up, even as the total length of Mumbai’s footpath remain the same. Daily collection of hafta is bound to go up !

Ø After every complaint, a few hawkers will get removed – but only temporarily for a few minutes / hours – as we have been witnessing over the years. And, of course re-appear faster than re-appearance of pot holes on Mumbai roads every monsoon, mobile app notwithstanding !

How to approach this “ Humanitarian “ issue ?

Ø Our attitude will have to change !

Hawkers have as much of a “ Right to Live [ RTL ] “ as anyone of us . From that right

ensues that subordinate right :

To peacefully pursue a legitimate vocation to earn a living

Ø We have to find a balance between this RTL of hawkers and the right of pedestrians to be able to walk on footpaths, with minimum obstruction

Any practical solution for such a trade-off ?

Ø Yes ! If you cannot lick them, join them

Grant a hawking license to all 3 lakh hawkers ( and all want to become “self-

employed “), on following terms / conditions / methods :

# Entire Mumbai City will be a “ Hawking Zone “ ( why not equal sharing of

inconvenience by all Mumbai residents ) excluding vicinity of hospital / schools

Pitch-slots to be allotted on ALL the footpaths of all the roads of Mumbai

# Hawkers will declare themselves “Self- Employed”, by registering so on BMC web

site

# BMC will issue to them , a hawking license – a plastic card

with, photo, name, gender, birth-date, address, mobile no, Aadhar No, PAN etc .

Card will be embedded with a pre-paid / rechargeable FasTag , which will

automatically transfer to BMC’s bank account, LICENSE FEE, as mandated

# On hawker’s Smartphone ( with BlueTooth / NFC / Biometric ), BMC will

install a Mobile App [ HawkWalk ? ], which can read the FasTag in the plastic card

and display ( 24x7 ), exact location of that hawker on a DASHBOARD in the

Central Hawking Control Room of BMC ( much better than rigid Sensor anklets on

feet ! )

# If a hawker uses mobile payment app BHIM for accepting payments against his

sale , 5 % of each SALE PROCEED will get automatically credited to his

monthly License Fee.

This great incentive will accelerate DIGITAL PAYMENTS and help organize this

totally “un-organized “business sector

# BMC is planning to use a GIS ( Geographic Information System ) based on

compiling “ PITCH DIMENSIONS “, using “ Latitude “ and “Longitude “ for each

SLOT to be allotted , on a given footpath . This is, not only a very cumbersome

process but also difficult to understand

I strongly recommend that BMC consider a GIS-based service in HAWKWALK

mobile app, by integrating it with an appropriate API from ,

www.What3Words.com

For details, look up :

https://what3words.com/business/gis/

It’s simple to integrate what3words by adding one of their extensions into

BMC’s GIS-based app or web service.

# Since ALL hawkers will become LICENSED , they will stop paying those daily

HAFTAs to police ! All they have to do is flaunt their Plastic Card License and tell

the police officer :

“ I am taking your photo with my mobile app HAWKWALK and pressing the button,

: This officer wants a bribe : “

End of the HAFTA RAJ !

Now you know why my suggestion may not get any support in BMC or from residents of “ Non-hawking Zones “ of Mumbai or from Police !

LIST OF SELF EMPLOYED

=======================================================

27 Feb 2020

hcp@RecruitGuru.com

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

I conceive , I conceive , I conceive !

A member of the British Parliament stood up to speak.

"I conceive, I conceive, I conceive ...," he began, to which Churchill commented,

"The honorable member conceived thrice but did not bring forth anything. A woman conceives once and brings forth a child."

May be I am being uncharitable , but I cannot stop comparison with our “ Vehicle Scrappage Policy “ , which is being “ conceived “ for the past 2 years !

But finally there appears “ light at the end of the tunnel “, with Shri Nitin Gadkariji saying :

“ Policy would soon be put up before the cabinet for approval “

Context :

Scrapped vehicle market pegged at Rs 43,000 crore

Highlights :

Ø 9 Million vehicles could be scrapped by 2020-21, of which 75 % are two-wheelers

Ø 28 million vehicles could go off the road by 2025

Ø CO2 emissions can be curbed by 17 % and PM by 24 %

Ø 6 million tons of steel scrap which India currently imports, can be met locally if old vehicles are recycled

Ø Potential to save 8 million tonnes of oil even if 50 % of BS-II and BS-III go off road

Ø Incentives some countries give for scrappage :

# USA ………. $ 4,500

# Germant……$ 3,500

# UK ………… $ 3,330

# France……. $ 1,400

Comments :

Ø Shri Satyakam Arya ( MD – Daimler India Commercial Vehicles / satyakam@daimler.com )

“ Three things that the Govt needs to do to promote scrappage are :

# Offer sizable financial incentives

# Develop resale market for the scrappage certificate for those who don’t want to replace their scrapped vehicles for new

# Fix the life-period for a commercial vehicle at 10 years

Ø Shri Ashok Khanna ( Group Head, Auto Finance, HDFC Bank / ashok.khanna@hdfcbank.com )

“ A comprehensive scrappage policy will result in reduction in costs, save foreign exchange and increase revenues in the long term

“ The policy could be a win – win for all , as the consumer would benefit from the scrap value, GST savings , and

discounts, while a dealer would gain from demand for new vehicles. For a vehicle maker, recycled metals would

be available at a cheaper rate , and the government could save forex because of lower imports of these raw

materials as well as get tax revenue from new vehicle sales “

A personal car may be scrapped after 15 years and a two-wheeler after 10 years. In case of commercial vehicles

, the end of life at 7-8 years or certain kilometers driven “

Ø Shri Ashish Kale ( President , Automobile Deler Association of India – FADA – fada@fada.in )

“ ….. since it would be a voluntary policy, there should be financial incentives equal to at least 10 % of the new vehicle to the owner to make the scheme successful

The focus should be more on financial incentives rather than disincentives . If a 10 % kind of benefit is extended, we see a lot of consumers taking advantage of the scheme “

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So , everybody ( including the vehicle-owners ) want the government to provide a 10 % incentive ( discount on sale price ), for scrapping old petrol / diesel vehicles and replace the same with new ( less polluting BS VI compliant but petrol / Diesel ? ) vehicle

What are the implications if this “ 10 % Incentive “ suggestion gets accepted by the government ?

Take a look at the following tabulations ( assuming current sale prices remain unchanged till 2025 ) :

===========================================================================

[ A ] …………… Current Sale prices of Petrol / Diesel vehicles and Incentive amounts

Type of Vehicle	Ave . Current Sale Price ( Rs Lakh )	Incentive @ 10 % ( Rs Lakh )
2 Wheeler	1.5	0.15
Passenger Vehicles	8.0	0.80
Commercial Vehicle	15.0	1.5

[ B ]……………No of Old Vehicles to be scrapped / replaced with new ones

By Year	Total ( Lakh )	2 Wheeler	Passenger Vehicles	Commercial Vehicles
2020 - 21	90 ( 9 million )	@ 75 % of the total = 67.5 Lakh	@ 20 % of the total = 18 Lakh	@ 5 % of the total = 4.5 Lakh
2024-25	280 ( 28 million )	@ 50 % of the total = 140 Lakh	@ 40 % of the total = 112 Lakh	@ 10 % of the total = 28 Lakh

[ C ]……………Incentive Burden for Government

Till Year	For 2 Wheelers ( Rs crore )	For Passenger Vehicles ( Rs Crore )	For Commercial Vehicles ( Rs Crore )	Total ( Rs Crore )
2020-21	67.5 Lakh x 0.15 Lakh = Rs 1,000 Cr	18 Lakh x 0.8 Lakh = Rs 1,400 Cr	4.5 lakh x 1.5 Lakh = Rs 675 Cr	3,075
2024-25	140 lakh x 0.15 Lakh = Rs 2,100 Cr	112 Lakh x 0.8 Lakh = Rs 8,960 Cr	28 Lakh x 1.5 lakh = Rs 4,200 Cr	15,260

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Scrapping 28 million vehicles in 5 years = 5.6 million vehicles EACH YEAR

By now , we probably have on our roads , 280 million vehicles { Petrol / Diesel }

Even if we are able to step up the scrappage at 10 million vehicles per year, it will take 30 – 40 years to scrap ALL existing petrol / diesel vehicles

But, it will not help solve much of our POLLUTION problem unless these old petrol / diesel vehicles get replaced with ELECTRIC VEHICLES ( zero pollution ), which are 50 % to 500 % more expensive than the petrol / diesel vehicles

A 10 % discount for EV, will not enthuse existing vehicle owners to replace theirs with EVs. They will continue to buy petrol / diesel vehicles at the discounted rates !

Hence, a financial incentive ( of 10 % ) – although devised to encourage OLD VEHICLE SCRAPPAGE, - may not serve the purpose of switch-over to EVs

And , it will be a bad idea, to offer 25 % discount for purchase of new EVs !

What we need is to impose a FINANCIAL DIS-INCENTIVE , on ALL vehicle owners, as suggested in :

Transport : an Integrated Logistic Plan ? [ 20 Nov 2018 ]

Pigovian Tax for Polluters ? [ 03 Apr 2019 ]

National Clean Air Tax ? – a Pigovian tax ? [ 11 Jan 2019 ]

As far as incentives to the VEHICLE SCRAPPAGE INDUSTRY is concerned, I hope Shri Gadkariji will incorporate my following specific suggestions ( sent as E Mails ), in the VEHICLE SCRAPPAGE POLICY, about to be born :

Rename it , “ Vehicle Recycle Policy “ [ 08 Aug 2018 ]

PIYUSH PLAN ? ………………………………………………. [ 27 Mar 2016 ]

Retiring Old Vehicles - Gadkari Style ? ………. ……[ 30 May 2016 ]

Young or Old ? …………………………………………………….[ 27 Aug 2016 ]

From OLD to NEW ? No , go NEWER ! ………………[ 22 Sept 2016 ]

Building Castles in the Air ? …………………………………[ 12 Mar 2017 ]

Best out of a Bad Bargain ? ……………………………………[ 29 Mar 2017 ]

Car Grave-Yard of World ? …………………………… [ 14 Feb 2018 ]

One door closes ; Another opens …………………………..[ 27 Feb 2018 ]

Mahindra Accelo : Saluting a pioneer ………………………..[ 19 June 2018 ]