Realty tops ministers’ asset choice; few invest in stocks

Suresh Prabhu, Sadananda Gowda, Ashok Gajathi Raju and Ravi Shankar Prasad are among the few ministers to have invested in financial instruments like bonds and stocks, while real estate seems to be the preferred asset- building avenue for most of the members of the union cabinet.

As per the latest details of the ‘assets and liabilities of the union council of ministers’ disclosed by the Prime Minister’s Office, a few ministers such as Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu do not own any vehicle in their names while many others have got multiple cars including luxurious ones.

At the same time, most of the ministers have jewellery, while the real estate properties including houses and flats account for the bulk of their total assets. The ‘cash in hand’ component declared by the most ministers are only about a few thousands of rupees, while quite a few including Swaraj, Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Ramvilas Paswan have parked their money in fixed deposits. The assets disclosed are as on the end of the last fiscal 2014-15 and the details were last updated on PMO website on January 30, 2016. The details are yet to be disclosed for some top ministers including Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Parrikar, Maneka Gandhi and Harsh Vardhan.

Among ministers of state with independent charge, Mahesh Sharma has disclosed five house properties worth a total value of Rs 19.19 crore, including one he inherited.

He has also investments in company shares and owns two cars -- Toyota Land Cruiser and Mitsubishi Lancer.

Jitendra Singh’s assets include a house worth Rs 1.97 crore in Jammu and agricultural land worth Rs 33 lakh. Among Cabinet ministers, Smriti Irani has disclosed one ‘residential flat’ in Mumbai worth Rs 90 lakh and a ‘residential apartment’ in Goa worth Rs 87.50 lakh, among other immovable properties.

Her movable assets include two cars, jewellery, bank deposits, FDs, NSCs and shares in unlisted companies.

Radha Mohan Singh has disclosed properties in Bihar and Noida worth Rs 62 lakh, as also agricultural and non- agricultural land in Bihar. While Singh does not own any vehicle, he has parked money in FDs and his other movable assets include gold, two mobiles, one watch, one revolver and one rifle. 

Thawar Chand Gehlot has disclosed two housing properties worth about Rs 39 lakh, one petrol pump (alloted for Rs 20 lakh and with a current market value of Rs 1.6 crore), two motorcycles, a tanker lorry, two cars (Maruti Swift and Tata Safari) and one scooty. 

His other assets include gold jewellery, mobile, iPad, and bank deposits. He also has one revolver and one gun.

Birender Singh has three houses in Haryana and one in Delhi, as also agricultural land and commercial building property in Haryana. He has two cars -- Mercedes and Innova -- as also FDs and other deposits in banks. Narendra Singh Tomar has disclosed residential properties in Madhya Pradesh, as also jewellery, FDs and insurance policies as part of his assets.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s assets include investments in banks, shares in unlisted companies (including shares gifted by her husband Sukhbir Singh Badal in Orbit Resorts Ltd) and an investment account with brokerage firm Sharekhan Ltd. Ashok Gajapathi Raju has disclosed bank accounts, FDs, as also shares and bonds of various companies. The shares include of companies like Tata Steel, Agro Tech Foods, Ashok Leyland, Balaji Telefilms, Cairn India, Bharat Electronics, Dhanalaxmi Bank, Exide, Havells, HDFC Bank, Infosys, NDTV, NHPC, NTPC, Sun TV, TVS Motors, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, HDFC Ltd, Idea Cellular, TV Today, United Spirits and Yes Bank. Raju’s disclosure is the most detailed and his assets also include a jeep and a Tata Nano car. His immovable assets include land, as also commercial and residential properties.

J P Nadda has disclosed saving bank accounts, fixed deposits and insurance policies, but said he had no investments in shares or bonds. He has also disclosed two cars, jewellery, as also residential and land assets. Ravi Shankar Prasad’s assets include deposits with banks and as many as 25 financial investments including bonds, debentures and mutual funds. This also includes Rs 2,54,156 as ‘investment in Sahara Multi Plus’. Besides, Prasad has four cars, jewellery, agriculture land, non-agri land and av residential property.

Ram Vilas Paswan has disclosed a flat and agriculture land in Bihar, but has no jewellery, cars or financial investments. His wife, however, has disclosed jewellery, a proprietorship firm and a petrol pump as her assets.