'Home loan, Rs 5 lakh in mutual funds, Chetak scooter': FM Sitharaman's publicly declared wealth is a middle-class balance sheet

‘Home loan, Rs 5 lakh in mutual funds, Chetak scooter’: FM Sitharaman’s publicly declared wealth is a middle-class balance sheet

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held total assets worth Rs 2.53 crore in 2022 with immovable property amounting to Rs 1.87 crore and Rs 65.55 lakh movable property, according to the declaration of assets and liabilities made by her as the Rajya Sabha member. However, the FM also had liabilities amounting to Rs 26.91 lakh. These numbers are likely to have changed in the last couple of years depending on her investments or repayments of loans. Curiously, FM Sitharaman in a recent media event said she had stayed away from contesting in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections because she did not have the kind of funds needed to fight the polls.

Sitharaman’s main asset is a residential building in Manchirevula near Hyderabad in Telangana, which she jointly owns with her husband Dr. Parakala Prabhakar. A comparison of her publicly declared assets in 2016 and 2022 suggests the valuation of the property has increased from Rs 99.36 lakh in 2016 to Rs 1.7 crore in 2022. She also owns non-agricultural land in Kuntloor worth Rs 17.08 lakh, which was estimated at Rs 16.02 lakh in 2016.

In both the declarations made in 2016 and 2022, Sitharaman owns a Bajaj Chetak scooter bought at a modest price of Rs 28,200. There is no car in her asset declaration. In 2016, she declared that she owned 315 grams of gold worth which was worth Rs 7.87 lakh then. The volume of gold did not change in the 2022 declaration, but the value had almost doubled to Rs 14.49 lakh given the rise in gold prices. If she hasn’t reduced or increased investment in gold, the 315 gram worth of gold will be worth Rs 19.4 lakh-Rs 21.18 lakh depending on whether it’s 22-carat or 24-carat gold.

Sitharaman was seemingly bullish about silver during 2016-2022. She more than doubled her investment in the metal from 2 kg to 5.282 kg in between this period. She had paid near Rs 2.60 lakh for the additional 3.282 kg of silver, according to the asset declaration made in 2022. In total, she owned silver worth Rs 3.98 lakh in 2022. In the declaration, the metals are classified as ‘Sthridhan/Gift/Purchase’. In bank deposits, the figure has increased from over Rs 6.77 lakh in 2016 to over Rs 35.52 lakh in 2022. She also has a PPF account, which she did not have in 2016, where she has invested near Rs 1.6 lakh. She has not declared any investment in insurance, including LIC.

Interestingly, much like many in urban India, Sitharaman diversified her investments into mutual funds, where she put a little over Rs 5.80 lakh. If she is doing SIPs, this figure will have increased in the last two years. At the time of the declaration in 2022, she held a meagre amount of Rs 7,350 in cash. She cited a couple of other assets as ‘Personal Loan Given’ worth Rs 2.7 lakh and ‘other receivables’ amounting to Rs 5.08 lakh.

Like many other middle class couple, FM Sitharaman and her husband have been repaying a home loan, which was originally with the Syndicate Bank but got transferred to Canara following the banks’ merger in 2020. The dues related to the 19-year home loan stood at Rs 7.02 lakh in 2016 and had reduced to Rs 5.44 lakh in 2022. There’s also an ‘Over Draft’ amount of Rs 5.03 lakh in 2016 which had dropped to Rs 2.53 lakh in 2022. The biggest liability is a 10-year mortgage loan which stood at Rs 19.05 lakh in 2016 and had reduced to Rs 18.93 lakh in 2022. All the loans are joint loans with 50% share.

Earlier in the week, Sitharaman said she had turned down BJP’s offer to contest elections because she did not have the ‘kind of fund’ required to contest the Lok Sabha polls. BJP President JP Nadda had given her the option to contest either from Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu, she said.

“After thinking for a week or ten days, I went back to say, ‘Maybe not’. I do not have that kind of money to contest. I also have a problem whether it is Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. It’s also going to be a question of various other winnability criteria that they use… Are you from this community or are you from that religion? Are you from this? I said no, I do not think I am going to able to do it,” she said.

“I am very grateful they accepted my argument… So I am not contesting,” she added.

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