Arun Jaitley doesn’t Address the Burning Issues Facing The Common People and The Indian Economy
The budget presented today by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley does not address the burning issues facing the common people and the Indian economy, while blaming “an unsupportive global environment, adverse weather conditions and an obstructive political atmosphere” for the growing economic hardship.
The budget does not even mention the Food Security Act which is yet to be implemented in full. The only reference to public distribution system is made in the form of proposed ‘automation’ of three lakh fair price shops. While promising an increased emphasis on irrigation, the government has done little to address the credit crunch and procurement crisis which lie at the heart of the deepening agrarian crisis that continues to drive thousands of Indian farmers to suicide in every month.
The vague promise of setting up a funding agency for higher education with a meagre corpus of Rs 1,000 crore does in no way address, let alone answer, the crisis on the higher education front where students from middle class and poor backgrounds are being systematically priced out. There is no major initiative on the health sector either – the government seems to be only interested in leaving poor patients at the mercy of an increasingly expensive and ever expanding PPP mode.
While as many as 75 lakh middle class households responded to the government’s appeal to give up LPG subsidy, the super-rich continue to violate tax laws and default on repayment of bank loans. Yet, the government has extended no benefit to the middle class while continuing to pamper the rich with greater exemptions, tax amnesties and even incentives to violate the laws of the land. The regressive character of India’s taxation policy has been further reinforced in this year’s budget with the government going for added cess and surcharges on goods and services, leaving corporate tax rates unchanged and announcing only a minor increase of 3% surcharge on annual personal income of more than Rs one crore.
The huge jump in the allocation of the road transportation sector from Rs 28679 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 69,422 in 2015-16 (revised estimate) to 1,03,386 crore in this year’s budget clearly shows the government is bearing a growing burden of road construction projects while the private players in PPP mode are walking away with all the benefits.
Indian banking sector is reeling under the burden of huge corporate defaults and the Rs 25,000 crore allocated for recapitalisation of banks will hardly provide any cushion to the public sector banks. The announcement of lowering of government stake in IDBI from more than 80% at present to less than 51% clearly indicates that the government is only interested in using the banking sector crisis as a pretext for privatisation.
CPI(ML) appeals to all to press the government to provide for immediate full implementation of the Food security Act, expansion of MNREGA, availability of greater quantities of easier and cheaper credit for farmers and for people engaged in various livelihood-related projects and small enterprises and increased allocation on health and education fronts.
