'Hope SEBI cracks down on such finfluencers': Akshat Shrivastava gets trolled for '1.2% yield' tweet on Statue of Unity

Finfluencer Akshat Shrivastava has been facing intense trolling on Twitter for his tweet on supposed meagre return on investment on building Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue, twice the height of the Statue of Liberty in the US.

The 182-meter high statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was inaugurated in 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kevadiya colony of Narmada district.

Built at a cost of Rs 2,989 crore, the project took 42 months to complete. Apart from the statue itself, there are five other related sites that are constructed along with the world’s tallest statue.

"Statue of Unity cost: around Rs 3000Cr. The total ticket sales (+parking) it generated between 2018-2020 (before COVID) was Rs 116 Cr. At this rate, that's an impressive yield of 1.2%. And, it will take around 80 years to break even on the investment," tweeted Shrivastava on Friday.

Shrivastava got slammed for the tweet because netizens thought he's missing on the intangibles like growth in and around Kevadiya because of the statue.

"I hope SEBI cracks down on such fin-influencers soon. Scamming people with crypto and then propagating garbage illiterate theories. Ask him how much economic activity added, and he will block you, like he blocked me when I asked about his Vauld scam," tweeted Gabbar aka Abhishek Asthana who also appeared on Shark Tank season 2 to make a pitch.

Asthana is referring to the Singapore-based crypto firm that Shrivastava 'pumped' before it suspended its transactions last year.

On Sunday, Shrivastava posted another tweet about memorials for Gandhi family generating zero revenue.

"If the statue building model to attract tourists was working so well, most countries would have done it to boost their GDP. The economic analysis could also have easily been presented to back this model. But unfortunately there are no studies that verify that such models work," he tweeted.

The finfluencer also weighed on Taj Mahal and its economic merits.

"Taj Mahal, other prominent structures were built during the time of kings and queens as an ode to their emperor/empire. The primary goal of monarchy was to depict the grandeur of the monarch and families. Empire building shouldn't be done in 21st Century by taxing the public. We don't live in a monarchy," he tweeted.

On Saturday, Shrivastava responded to a troll who called him 'shameless' for calling a national monument near waste of money.

"Shamelessness is 300,000 kids dying due to hunger every year in India. But, public money being used to build monuments for political gains. If those national icons were alive and you would have asked them: should we build your statue or give food to people? Guess their answer," tweeted Shrivastava.

Here are a few Twitter reactions against Shrivastava's theory on national monuments.