Modi Government’s Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley presented the budget in the Parliament for the eyaqr
2015-16. It is totally against the workers, employees, people, public sector
and weaker sections like SC/ST/Women/children etc. It has shown no sympathy at
all for reviving the telecom PSUs BSNL, MTNL and ITI. It is totally in favor of
the Indian and foreign big corporate and rich people and private sector.
Modi Government gave Rs
5,89,285.50 crores unwarranted and
unjustified concessions in the year 2014-15 to the Corporates and to the rich persons.
This was higher than the fiscal deficit of Rs 5,55,649 in the budget of
2014-15. Therefore if these concessions were not given to the Corporates and to
the rich, there would not have been any deficit in the budget of 2014-15. Now,
in the present budget of the year 2015-16 also the Corporates and the rich are
given more than Rs 5 lakh crores unjustified concessions . In addition, the
rich were given a concession of Rs 8315 crores in direct taxes. Wealth tax is totally abolished. Corporate
tax is proposed to be reduced from the present 30% to 25% in 4 years. Several
concessions are showered on FDI and FIIs. Exemption is given from Capital Gains
Tax.(Tax on profits gained in selling shares in the companies).
These unjustified concessions to
the corporates and the rich are leading to deficit in the budget and to reduce
this deficit, the Modi Government proposed to receive revenue to the extent of
Rs 70,000 crores by disinvesting Public Sector Undertakings, and to impose
indirect taxes amounting Rs 23,383 crore on the commodities used by the people.
To reduce the budget deficit further, it reduced Government expenditure,
including subsidies to the people. In 2014-15 itself, Government expenditure
was reduced by 7% in the allocated amount. This reduced amount was equal to Rs
1,14,000 crores. Whereas the amount allotted in the 2014-15 budget for
Government expenditure was 10.8% of GDP(Gross Domestic Product), in this budget
of 2015-16, it is reduced to 10.3% of GDP. The allotments to Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme and food security remained stagnant in real terms. While the
total subsidies in the budget of 2014-15 were Rs 2.60 lakh crores (2.1% of GDP) , it is reduced to Rs 2.44 lakh crores (1.7% of GDP) in 2015-16
budget. While in the budget 2014-15 an amount of Rs 35,163 crores was allotted
for Health and Family Welfare, it is reduced to Rs 29,653 crores in this budget
2015-16. For housing and urban poverty eradication, an amount of Rs 6008 crores
was allotted in the budget . It is reduced to Rs 5634 crores in this budget.
Modi budget is against weaker
sections. The amount allotted for Tribal Sub-Plan is Rs 5000 crore less than
last year’s allocation. The rule for allotting 8.2% of the budget for Tribal
Sub-Plan is violated and only 5.5% is allotted. Similarly, the rule for
allotting 17.5% of the budget expenditure for SC sub plan is violated and only
8.34% is allotted. This is Rs 12000 crore less than what should have been
allotted. For the gender budget meant for empowering women, the allotment is
reduced by 20% compared to 2014-15 budget allotment. This reduction amounts to
Rs 20,000 crore. For ICDS(Integrated Child Development Scheme), in last year’s
budget an amount of Rs 16000 crores was allotted. But it is reduced to Rs 8000
crores only in this budget.
Sevveral proposals in this budget
are against the employees and workers. Large scale disinvestment of PSUs is
proposed and collecting a huge amount of Rs 70,000 crore in the year 2015-16 is
aimed at by dis-investing PSUs. Loss making PSUs are also proposed for
disinvestment. The ports owned by the
Government are proposed to be Corporatized, as a first step towards
their privatization. Thus a severe attack is planned on the PSUs. Income tax
exemption limit is not increased, thereby disappointing the middle class
employees. In the name of bad performance of EPF, the workers and employees
covered by it are offered an option to opt for New Pension Scheme(NPS) instead
of EPF. While it is difficult to divert EPF funds to invest in share markets,
the New Pension Scheme allows diversion of pension contribution of
employees to the share markets and the
employees will not get pension in case the pension fund company to which the
employee contributed his pension contribution faces losses on its investments
in the share market. Thus the aim is to divert the funds of the pension
contribution of the employees to the gambling in the share markets. Similarly,
it is proposed to allow option for Health Insurance instead of ESI, so that the
funds contributed for health security can be diverted to share markets by the
health insurance companies.
Modi Government has shown no
interest at all in reviving the loss making telecom PSUs like BSNL, MTNL and
ITI. We are demanding for immediate refund of the amount of Rs 6724 crores paid
by BSNL for the surrendered BWA spectrum. Instead of doing this, the Government
has allotted Rs 830 crores only in this 2015-16 budget(In 2014-15 budget it
allotted Rs 100 crores only). For ITI which is declared as a sick industry in
2004 itself, the Government allotted an amount of Rs 150 crores as support for
payment of salaries to its employees and allotted another amount of Rs 50
crores for its revival in this budget 2015-16 (In the budget 2014-15,Rs 165
crores was allotted for support to salaries expenditure and Rs 460 crores was
allotted for revival. But this 460 crores was reduced to Rs 192 crores
subsequently). It is to be noted that the UPA Government has approved on
12.2.2014, a revival package of Rs 4157 crores for reviving ITI. It has to be
implemented in 18 months. But how it can be implemented in 18 months when the
annual allocations in the budget are so small? This proves the lack of interest
in Modi Government for reviving PSUs. At the same time it agreed to forgo
thousands of crores of rupees capital gains tax from Corporates like Vodafone
etc.
Modi budget is carrying forward
the same anti people policies of the UPA Government, but with more speed and
vigor. Its logic behind the showering of lakhs of crores of rupees concessions
to Corporates is that with these concessions, the foreign and Indian big
capitalists will be encouraged to invest in India for developing the economy. But
what is the use of investments when people’s purchasing power is not growing?
Who will purchase the increased production due to investments if the purchasing
power of the people is not increasing? It is also not possible to depend on
exporting the increased produce to other countries even if our people are not
able to purchase it, since the world economy is facing stagnation and it will
be so for some more years. The reduction in subsidies and welfare measures will
further reduce the purchasing power of the people and the economy will face
more stagnation and crisis. Therefore the policy of Modi Government to shower
lakhs of crores of rupees concessions to corporates and to reduce Government
expenditure on subsidies and welfare measures is counterproductive and will put
the economy in more and more crisis. The correct policy is to abolish all the
concessions being given in lakhs of crores of rupees to the Corporates and use
that money for subsidies, welfare measures and for developing the infra
structure. It will increase the purchasing power of the people and create jobs.
But Modi will not do this since he has to repay his debt to the Corporates who
helped him in his election campaign. Both BJP and the Congress and regional
parties are parties of the Corporates and landlords. The trade unions,
agriculture workers organizations, peasants organizations, women’s organizations,
SC/ST/minorities organizations and Left and democratic forces have to fight a
united and broad based struggle against these policies and for a pro-people
economic policy.
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