AMN / NEW DELHI
The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India terms the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister on February 1, 2022 as the most disastrous one which will further widen the gap between the haves and have nots.
D Raja, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India said the Budget proposals announced by the Finance Minister are totally disastrous and deceptive. At a time when the country and our economy has been suffering from economic crisis which further worsened due to pandemic situation. But there is no concrete proposal in the Budget that would help the economic revival.
Finance Minister has claimed that the estimated growth would be at 9.2 per cent but there is no reason to believe that this would actually materialize. During the entire pandemic period, when toiling people have suffered from job losses and are facing issues for their livelihood, the Government has been concentrating on supply side by pumping in more concession to the industrialists and corporates instead of boosting consumption by enabling some money with the masses of the people. Despite these huge concessions to them, the production has not picked up as revealed by the Index for Industrial Production.
The priority should have been to generate more and more jobs. But there is no plan in the budget to generate more employment.
Similarly, prices are continuously soaring high and containing inflation is another priority task. But again, the Budget has not addressed this issue.
The Economic Survey Report presented by the Government says that Central Public Sector Enterprises have made a net profit of more than Rs. 93,000 crores last year but ironically the Government has been weakening public sector by privatizing them. The Finance Minister is boasting that disinvestment in LIC will take place shortly and Air India has already been privatised, strategic partner for Neelanchal Ispat has been selected, etc.
The government has announced to grant five academic educational institutions centres of excellence and extend red carpet welcome to foreign universities, which will only accentuate the class divide in the education sector resulting in the denial of access to poor Dalits, tribals and the downtrodden to higher education. So too the government’s treatment of health and social sectors.
Overall allocation for agriculture and allied activities has gone down from 4.26 per cent to 3.84 per cent. No assurance has been made on MSP.
It is also clear that the fiscal deficit will go up. For the middle-class sections of the people, there is no concession in tax, etc. which means that they will continue to suffer.
Thus, the Budget has not addressed any of the current economic challenges. It is directed only to serve corporate and big business houses for their loot.