Shri
Narendra Modi
Prime Minister
Government
of India
152, South Block, Raisina Hill
New Delhi
110001 January 02,
2018
Dear Sir
Suggestion
No 04
This is further to my last communication
of October 10, 2017.
Herewith, my fourth suggestion to
you.
a) Please
advise the Ministry of Sports that, in future, whenever any sportsperson is
being awarded for outstanding performance or for winning medals/accolades at
international/national events, the
award should only be given partly in cash/kind and largely by way of
Investments Instruments so that he/she has some meaningful savings for later
on in life.
b)
Today
when the Central and Sports Governments vie with each other to give Cash Awards
to say Olympic or Commonwealth Games medal winner, these young persons land up with anything
between Rs. 50 lakhs to Rs. 5 crores in cash at a very young age, usually around the twenties.
As can be easily understood,
most of such cash awards get quickly
used up in conspicuous consumption by way of purchase
of fancy items like car, appliances, air travel and fancy (& wasteful)
parties.
Further, when sometimes these sportspersons are gifted
expensive cars, they end up spending
from their pocket to maintain & run the car or they have to simply abandon
it.
c)
As
against the above , my suggestion is that part of the Award Money (or Budget) should
be give out by way of Investments. Let
me explain this with an illustration :
d)
Suppose
it has been decided that for an Olympic Gold Medal winner, an amount of Rs. 20 lakhs will be given as
Cash Award, then it should actually be
given out as under :
1)
30 % of
Award Amount as Cash
Award of Rs. 6 lakhs
2)
25 % of Award Amount in LIC’s Single Premium Endowment Policy or
JEEVAN Utkarsh Plan be Investing Single Premium of Rs. 5 lakhs
3)
25 % of Award Amount as NSC or KVP Certificates of Rs. 5 Lakhs
4)
20 % of Award Amount as provision for Premium payment for next 10
years for Health Insurance with PSU Insurance Company for Self for Rs. 5 lakhs
coverage (Annual Premium likely to be Rs. 40 K), amounting to Rs. 4 Lakhs over
10 years
RATIONALE for the above recommendation
a)
The
fact all the award money is not being given in cash will ensure that all of
it cannot be spent in a short time.
b)
The
Sportsperson will have some compulsory savings from his award money which will stand
him/her in good stead when from goes down
or h/she is no longer earning as much as when they were in peak form.
c)
It
inculcates a savings and insurance habit amongst sportspersons.
d)
It
also eases cash flow for the Governments.
Needless to add that the above is a suggested
structure, by way of illustration, and it can be appropriately fine-tuned
to ensure that the sportsperson gets the best “mileage” out of such a
structure.
However, to avoid any backlash of public
opinion or hardship to the awardee, dedicated
and efficient implementation is to be ensured to see that all the
components of the award are disbursed simultaneously and the awardee does not have to do any running about,
whether for
documentation/procedures/formalities nor does he/she have to remind anyone in
the Government/Ministry about getting a particular “component” of the award
disbursed.
Kind regards.
(Hemendra K. Varma)
Encl : a/a
cc
: Shri Nripendra Mishra, Principal Secretary to PM
Shri
Pradeep Kumar Sinha, Cabinet Secretary
Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Minister of
State (IC) of Youth Affairs
and Sports
