We belong to such a country, like many other countries around the world, there are a huge number of people who are passing their days in unthinkable misery. As a private citizen or as a private business-person, we can't do much to solve the whole problem. We participate in the governance process whenever we are given a chance. And we hope that things will get better - soon.
But can we, those who are better off in this country, can we pass a day without the feeling of guilty for just being well off? Can we really pass a day without feeling sorry when our private cars or taxi or CNG stops at the trafic signal and see some unfortunate little girl or boy begging for money or trying sell some flowers? Don't be worried, because the fact that he or she is still alive, its a big win against many of the odds, since most likely this kid has grown up in a slum in Dhaka. Have you ever been to a bosti? If not, we would suggest that you go visit some bosti someday. Then, you will appreciate the level of luck that those boys or girls have been bestowed upon by The Almighty for just being alive so that they can beg or sell flower to you. That might reduce some of your guilty feeling, because most likely, if you are watching these little boys and girls from a private car, most likely you did not have so much good luck in your life. You were lucky at the birth in that you were not born where those little kids did. However, after the birth, in every step of the way, those little kids were luckier than you (probably) to be able to live until now so she or he can sell flowers to you. If you think that way, guilty feeling should indeed reduce a bit.
However, we did not start to write this article to reduce your guilty feeling, rather we wanted to increase your guilty feeling by highlighting the problem that we have within ourselves. Once that feeling is bumped up enough, it is our hope that you will be motivated to netralize your life-style from the state subsidy. It is also our hope that some NGO will help you with that by offering that service soon. Because at the end, it is our aim to make you guilt free as much as possible. We want to do that not out of goodwill to you (off course, we have goodwill for everyone), but we feel that a guilty feeling does not help a person to go far in life. So, if we can make you guilt free, hopefully, you will become an enlightened person (in the words of Abdullah Abu Sayeed sir, 'Alokito Manush') and you will reach such a stage in life that you might actually think about doing something so those poor kids can become unlucky like you!
Before going into the main topic, we want to talk about another thing - just to give you the right perspective. You must have heard about the word carbon-neutral. People and businesses in many developed countries are spending a lot of money to become carbon neutral. You know what they getting by doing that? They are clearing their conscience, they are trying to become guilt-free. What kind of guilt we are talking about here? Have you heard the recent hue and cry that started about climate change? Many people around you must be shouting that rich countries are causing global warming, causing problem for us. So, the rich countries should compensate us since we are being affected for them. Talks have started and this would be handled in some way (hopefully in a good way) - even though the process of these type of intergovernmental negotiation would be very complex. However, the people and businesses at the individual level is not sitting idle for their government. There are many organizations who are selling carbon credits to individuals and businesses and they are buying those credits to become carbon-neutral by themselves. People are not just sitting idle for the day when the government will settle the issue and let them free from guilt. Responsible people and responsible businesses do that.
With this background, we should first mention that in Bangladesh, even though their numbers will be few, there are people who needs to buy similar carbon credits if they want to be carbon neutral. However, our topic today is not being carbon neutral. It is about subsidy neutral.
When you buy a flower in the trafic light from those little kids, you probably don't need the flower, still you buy, because you want to feel good, you want to help the poor boy or the poor girl. Has it ever occured to you that the air-conditioner that is running in your car, the fuel that is being used to run the car and the air conditioner, some part of that fuel price is being paid by those poor kids? Are you surprised? Don't be. Most likely, those little kids have paid you more than you will be paying them in your whole life, even if you spend taka 10 everytime you buy something from them. Ironic isn't it? Not only that, most likely the computer that you are using to read this article, the electricity that you are using to power your computer, a portion of that electricity was also paid for by those poor kid!
How come - you will ask? Don't be surprised. Just like the world is a complex system and its now coping to find out a mechanism to equitably share the basic resources like carbon footprint, our national government is also a complex system, albeit an inefficient one, too, compared to many others in the developed countries. In many cases, the system cannot differentiate the poor and rich, although in many other case it does. Because of those inefficiencies, we, the rich get a lot of subsidies that we really do not deserve. More importantly, those subsidies, if they could be separated, could be used to buy books or medicine for some kids. Since the government isn't able to make the distinction yet, we are getting the money that we don't need through various subsidies. Don't you feel guilty for having been using such an unnecessary advantage? We are sure you do. But there is no need to wait for the day when government will be efficient enough so it won't make this kind of mistake anymore.
Hope to get some organization in near future that will provide you this service, to calculate how much money you owe to the society from unnecessary subsidy and you can become neutral by paying that back. Or you can calculate that for yourself if you want to do it now. Do not confuse it with zakat. If you pay zakat or some other donations to the poor, that calculation should "ideally" start after you become subsidy-neutral.
A similar thing should be done for the business firms. There is a recent talk about making CSR expenses tax free. We think, donations at the private level should be made tax free first and see how far NBR can check the abuse for fear which it is still not allowed. CSR spending by the businesses should not be made tax free now. If government wants to do that, to make CSR spending tax free, that count should start only after the businesses become subsidy neutral. It should be mandatory for businesses.
There is also another dimension. In many capital markets of the world, there are separate indexes that include only companies that fulfill certain kind of benchmark. For example, an investor who is looking for Sharia complaint investment, there is an index in NYSE that helps you do that. If you are looking for companies who are environmentally responsible (i.e. green), there are many services available to help with that.
In line with this, in Bangladesh, some civil society or NGO organiation should offer a service to identify the amount of money that different business houses are getting as government subsidy, they get it through different generalized subsidy mechanisms of the government (e.g. fuel subsidy, electricity subsidy, water subsidy, etc) even though the business might not need it. Once that information is public, the individual companies can try to become subsidy-neutral. Once they become subsidy-neutral, only the amounts above that should be treated as tax-deductible CSR expense, if government wants to go that route.
