‘Saving’ the nation
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Remember that catchy National Savings Bank (NSB) television advertisement some years ago about inculcating the savings habit?
It went like this ‘mitteng mitta, sathen sathe, rupiyalen rupiyale, ekathu karala ekathu karala ….” (Meaning fistful by fistful, little by little, collect cents and rupees and save) … and showed a child putting coins into a till (by the way where have all the tills gone?). This infectious and extremely powerful ad with an effectively-packaged message (to borrow marketing jargon) reflected the value of saving for the development of the nation.
I was reminded of this message when a story in the newspapers last week grabbed my attention. It spoke of how students and teachers across Sri Lanka had donated 2 rupees and 10 rupees each per day, respectively, for two weeks to a fund to build the Elephant Pass railway station. At the end of the 14-day period, when the collection swelled to Rs. 10.54 million, the Ministry of Education contributed the balance Rs. 10 million required and a new station was built at a cost of Rs. 20 million. Last week the station was opened with the participation of children from the North and the South.
With the powerful ‘Trail’ North-South Walk that raised millions of rupees to build a cancer facility in the South, Sri Lankans are showing that they are a generous lot. Why not channel that wee bit of loving kindness normally to a friend, family, even foe and the nation to a nationwide (NSB-kind) savings initiative?
Take Sri Lanka’s population of 20.5 million people for example. Of this 25 per cent is in the 14-year and below bracket, 67 per cent in the age range 15-64 years and the balance 8 per cent over 65 years. According to official data there are about 4.2 million schoolchildren and around 8.6 million in the labour force (over 20 years).
Savings at the rate of 2 rupees a day x 4.2 million schoolchildren and 10 rupees a day x 8.6 million workers work out to Rs. 8.4 million and Rs. 86 million, respectively. Per year it works out to over Rs. 3 billion and over Rs. 31 billion, respectively. A tidy sum of savings, isn’t it that can be apportioned for national development while providing a reasonable return on investments? The country could reduce dependence on foreign borrowings or internally from the controversial Mr. ‘Bond’.
The entire population is unlikely to be able to afford 2 rupees or 10 rupees daily since, believe it or not and in spite of being a middle-income country with a per capita income said to reach an ambitious US$7,500 (Rs. 1.1 million per year per person) by 2020, poorer segments of the population eke out a meagre living, some struggling on just Rs. 100 to 200 a day. To the poor, these statistics are meaningless drivel dished out by government economists and statisticians to paint a rosy picture.
But this could be compensated by higher savings from the rich and upper middle class groups.
There are many ways to raise money for national development through the ‘ithiru kireeme’ concept.
For example there are umpteen foundations set up in the name of parliamentarians to do what, nobody knows. In July to October 2016 alone through Parliament, there were seven foundations approved like the “Hand to Stand Foundation” by MP Kavinda Heshan Jayawardana, the ‘Samata Sarana Sahana Sewa Foundation’ by MP S. C. Mutukumarana to help the less fortunate, the ‘Lak Janasetha Foundation’ by MP Thenuka Vidanagamage, the ‘Sathya Sri Ghanapathi Bhakthi Jana Sewa Foundation’ by MP Ananda Kumarasiri and the ‘Lasallian Community Education Services’ by MP K.K. Piyadasa, all with grand visions of helping society and the unfortunate.
Ask your local ‘bassunai’ about foundations and his response would be: “Aney Mahattayo, ape gedera foundation eka daanna, cementhi than hari ganang.”
This is just over a three-month period. There may be dozens more, all in the name of social service. So while extracting funds from society, why not channel some of those funds to what should be called the ‘ekathu kireeme’ (collection) and ‘ithiri kireeme’ (savings) fund, using the excellent example by the students and teachers to help build the Elephant Pass railway station? No doubt several millions of rupees could be collected through this exercise with decent interest to the depositors. Mopping up large quantities of surplus cash in the system and black money would also help curb inflation.
Add a couple of rupees per day per parliamentarian as a ‘generous’ donation for all the perks they get like duty free cars, pensions, etc (when they should be working without fringe benefits and facing the same hardships as their constituents) and that would raise a few millions more.
Continuing on the ‘ekathu kireeme’ trail, then turn to some of the biggest beneficiaries of free education and free health – cronies of the ruling parties who have amassed millions. According to some guesstimates, there were around 200+favoured individuals who benefited from the largesse distributed by the former regime. Add a couple of millions of rupees from those sources and by then the ‘ekathu kireeme’ fund would have swelled by a couple of billions of rupees.
Now come to the present regime and its beneficiaries including those involved in the bond scam. If the profits of over Rs. 7 billion are anything to go by, donating a billion rupees is just small change for dealers who make big bucks.
The billions of rupees that have been computed in this calculation are just on the basis of one year of savings by the entire nation. Multiply that by five years and this country can build three giant Mahaweli-type projects with the money that can be mobilised intelligently, diligently and for a national cause. Saving-to-save the nation could the catchphrase.
Assign the task to Trail founders Nathan Sivagananathan and Sarinda Unamboowe, and cricketers Muttiah Muralidaran, Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara, whose trail-blazing walk attracted thousands of supporters and millions rupees for a good cause.
The five trend-setters may even better MS, RW and RK’s efforts to find scarce revenue for government spending.
On a more serious note, the effort by the schoolchildren and adults to help build a railway station should have got more prominence instead of a few paragraphs and a picture in a newspaper. It was not only a great effort but reflected discipline, understanding and a determination to save that 2 rupees and 10 rupees, respectively whatever the daily burden of life entailed. Not many others in Sri Lanka would have such a commitment. Think about it.
Before winding up, I plan to go looking for that old till and start the ‘ekathu kireeme’ and ‘ithiri kireeme’ trail. Like the famous saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’, a rupee saved a day may well protect Sri Lankans from being indebted for life to international donors and banks.