A Budget For Corporates
V Sivadasan
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government leaves no stones unturned to ensure that the significance and salience of the Parliament is eroded so that it could rule with executive diktats. Terminating the practice of presenting a separate Railway Budget is a prime example of this. Informing the parliament honestly about the economic situation of the country and getting the approval of the Parliament for allocating resources at hand is of prime importance in a democratic polity. However, what one get to see in the working of BJP government are distorted statistics and employment of national resource in a way that is unsuitable to national progress. The declaration regarding digital currency is a typical example of BJP’s attempt to deliberately degrade the status of the Parliament. The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, dealing with the prohibition of private cryptocurrencies and formulating a regulatory framework for official digital currency was being readied for the consideration of the Parliament. The draft of the inter ministerial committee is there in this regard. It would have been proper to announce it after sufficient deliberation within the legislature. Imposing major economic decisions without sufficient circumspection and deliberation can badly affect the life of the masses. This has been the experience of demonetization in India.
The BJP has earlier declared that India will be a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2022. However, as we reach the 2022-23 budget, there is an eerie silence over this. Indian economy is still at 3 trillion dollars. The claim was that the economy will grow exponentially ensuring prosperity to all. However, there yawning chasm between the tall talk on the one hand and the state of the economy on the other. This budget is not an exception as this is the usual pattern of budgets presented by BJP. Being tight-lipped about the failed promises and tall claims of previous budgets is a recurring feature of budgets presented by BJP governments. The standard of life of the people does not depend upon the size of the economy, but on the way in which economic resources are utilized for the betterment of the people. What ails the budget is that it put forwards the interests not of the people of India, but of the crony corporate who are close to the ruling dispensation. It is their demands and desires that have been expressed as the budget of the India.
Mindless reduction of state spending for facilitating capitalist expansion is the hall mark of neoliberal policies. The present budget also performs the same job. The finance minister has stated that there a historical rise in the collection of GST. Yet, there is a marked decrease in the public spending for education and healthcare. Even though the union budget has proposed a growth in total expenditure by Rs. 174909 crores from the revised estimates of 2021-22 it is to be noted that as a percentage of GDP the total expenditure has come down from 17.8 per cent in 2020-21 to 15.3 per cent in 2022-23 budget estimates Increasing income by cut throat taxing of common public and terminating welfare programmes for the people is the policy. There are several instances of this practice in the budgetary documents. There is huge reduction of 27% in the food subsidy when compared to the revised estimates of 2021-22. LPG subsidy has been reduced by 60% consecutively for the second year. There is a 28% reduction in the amount set aside for food subsidy and the fertilizer subsidy has been reduced by 25%. The amount set aside for the welfare of women and children is 0.10 percentage of the budget estimate.
MGNREGA scheme employs 9 crore people in India. They are most deprived sections in the society. This budget will take away their livelihood. There is huge decrease in the allocation for MGNREGA. There is a 41% reduction in the budgeted amount as the allocation has come down from 98,000 crore to 73000 core. This approach is adopted even as the employment situation in rural India is pathetic.
Even now, there is a serious problem on the ground as wages have not been paid for months. In some states, the scheme itself has stopped functioning effectively. At some places, the scheme is surviving only because of the readiness of states to go an extra mile. The approach towards MGNREGA, betrays the hollowness of the tall claim and promise of the creation 60 lakh employment opportunities. The government refuses to give even an amount equivalent to what has been granted for the corporate sector as tax reduction in surcharges.
In the education sector too, the anti people approach is evident. There are no concrete suggestions or measures address the digital divide in the country. There is nothing in the budget, to ensure internet laptop or smart devices for the students from deprived backgrounds. The problems in this field cannot be resolved through starting some digital tv news channels. Various commissions on education have consistently recommended an expenditure 10 % of the budget on education. However, what one could see is reduction in the allotted amount. Amount set aside for the Ministry of Education was merely 0.24 percentage of the GDP in 2021-22. In 2022-23, this has been reduced to 0.22% of the GDP. The amount set aside for National Mid Day Meal scheme in 2021-22 was 11500. In 2022-23, this has been reduced to 10233 crores. The name of the mid day meal scheme has been changed to Pradhanmantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Yojana (PM POSHAN) . while Poshan (which means nutrition ) has been added to the the name, the scheme has been weakened by a reduced allocation of resources.
It was expected that health sector would get great support from the government, but there is a great reduction in the amount allotted for health care. The amount which 74820 crores in the year 2021-22 has been reduced by 33809 cores to become 41,103 crores in 2022-23. If inflation is taken into account, the real amount will be even lesser. As a percentage of GDP, the expenditure has come down to 0.17% fin 2022-23 from 0.37% in 2022-23. There is a reduction in the amount allotted for National Health Mission. This will affect the functioning of all public institutions which provide healthcare and this will make health care inaccessible to common man.
Another highlight of the budget is the Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana which promises to build houses for 80 lakh people. Houses cannot be built with promises and tall talk. They require many tangible and intangible resources for their construction. Even if we go by the assessment that no administrative expenses will be there for the project, dividing the 48,000 crore among 80 lakh beneficiaries will result in the amount the being allotted for building one house to be 60,000 rupees. It is evident that even a proper latrine could not be constructed with this amount.
The union government led by BJP repeatedly claim that they want to make India. Propaganda peppered with extreme chauvinism forms the introduction of even official announcements. Even the most anti people policies are presented in a celebratory tone with gusto. It could be observed in the present budget too. The selling of Nilachal Ispat Nigam Ltd to Tata’s was celebrated as a masterstroke. Another proud achievement was the handing over of Air India to Tata’s thus turning India into a country with no national airlines or carrier. Union budget is spectacle of destructive selling and disinvestment. It was announced with pride that the shares of LIC which gives thousands of crores in profit to the government, will be sold in open market. The intent to sell shares of other PSUs has also been announced. Things unimaginable for any government with even an iota of patriotism are being done by this government which castigates any political opposition as anti national. The budget attempts to bring in backdoor privatization through public private partnership. Programmes like BharatNet for internet penetration, ParvatMala for ropeways to hilly tracts, multimodal logistic parks for augmenting the movement of people and goods and other such schemes are supposed to be in PPP mode. PPP is said to be the acronym for “Promotion of Private Profits”.
The budget which is neoliberal in letter and spirit is marked the servility of the ruling dispensation to the interests of corporate families and cliques. Corporate tax which was reduced earlier has not been restored and even the surcharge of 12% was reduced to7%. Many of the legislations passed by Parliament has been designed exclusively to address the needs of the corporate. Writing off NPAs through IBC2016 alone helped the corporate to gain a profit of 10.5 lakh crores. There used to a Revenue forgone statement detailing the tax exemptions given to corporates. That also has been done away with by the regime. The government does not dare to offend the corporates and the budget is scripted for them. And thus, this budget becomes the tool of deceiving people.
Dr. V Sivadasan is a Member of Parliament of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the Rajya Sabha and is also the former All India President of the Students’ Federation of India.
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