The words “aam admi” has been used by the Congress–led UPA to death. Everything that they do they do it for the aam admi. At least that is what they claim. And why not, it has helped them win elections, not once but twice.
Interestingly, the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, while delivering the budget speech in Parliament, mentioned aam admi only once. May be it was his way of signaling to the aam admi that this budget would not champion their causes, rather it would look after the interests of the corporate world and its denizens. It was a warning sign that UPA II was abandoning its aam admi agenda.
At a time when food inflation hovered around 15 percent, the annual inflation of primary articles stood at 15.77 percent and the fuel price index was 12.14 percent the Finance Minister presented the Union Budget of 2011-12 which is, at best, unimaginative and totally ignored the problems faced by the people and the economy. The common man is at his wit’s end to make ends meet. In this backdrop the Finance Minister announced an enormous slash of Rs. 20,000 crore in fuel, fertilizer and food subsidy, the three ingredients whose price rise hits the aam admi the hardest. The fact that this government is not serious about addressing the issue of food security is amply proved by the reduction of food subsidy by Rs. 27 crore. These announcements unveil the anti – poor face of the UPA II.
Through his budget speech the Finance Minister has given a message of the Government’s policy of patronizing the corporates, traders and speculators. Under the guise of augmenting food storage capacity cold chains and storage facilities have been provided infrastructure status knowing fully well that these post harvest storage facilities would be illegally used by the hoarders to artificially hike the food grain prices.
Even though the Finance Minister has admitted that more than 40 million tonnes of food grains are stored with the government ( which is much above the buffer stock norm ), the latter has no plans to propose any step to distribute the surplus grains at reduced prices through the Public Distribution System. The nation had watched aghast on national television millions of tonnes of food grains rotting out in the open. Even then the government declined to distribute those rotting grains amongst the overwhelming number of poor who survive on less than Rs. 20 per day (according to the Arjun Sengupta report). The argument put forward then was that free distribution of food grains would bring down prices which would discourage farmers from growing food crops.
The budgetary provisions, for agriculture, have remained much below the requirement and actually marked a decline both as proportion to overall budgetary expenditure and as percentage of GDP. Despite a target of 4 percent growth in agriculture the agricultural growth rate has hung around 2 percent on average. In such a disturbing scenario it is shocking that the budget provision for the Agriculture Department has been cut from last year. This may be because the poor, illiterate farmers living in the remotest parts of India do not follow the Union Budget and are, therefore, oblivious to the malevolent policies of the central government.
The budgetary decision to reduce direct tax to the tune of Rs. 11,500 crore while increasing the burden of indirect tax by Rs. 11,300 crore is another dubious decision of the government. This single decision exposes UPA II’s bias against the aam admi. Though surcharge on corporate taxes has been reduced the custom and excise duties on crude oil and petroleum products have remain unchanged. Crude oil price has shot up alarmingly in the international market. With excise and custom duties remaining unchanged the government allows itself the opportunity to raise the petroleum product price at regular intervals.
It appears that the only agenda of the government is to reduce subsidies, through direct and indirect means, on essentials like food, kerosene, diesel, LPG, fertilizers etc. all items that touch the lives of the aam admi.
The budget has failed miserably to declare any single concrete step for recovering black money as well as huge tax arrears, both within and outside the country. Not much has been said about containing tax evasion and other forms of tax leakages. When the country is reeling under one multi-crore scam after another, involving ministers and other senior officials of the government, the Finance Minister did not say much other than to pay lip service about probity in public life.
Social inclusion and equity remained small ticket add-ons in the Budget where the poor have been left out. The MGNREGA scheme, which was till last year tom-tommed as testimony of UPA’s concern for the aam admi because of its multi-thousand crore allocation fund, has lost its sheen. It found only a passing mention in the Finance Minister’s speech. Outlay to MGNREGA scheme has been frozen at Rs. 40,000 crore, despite the fact that wage hike would entail higher expenditure. It seems that the flagship scheme has run its course of yielding political dividend. So concern for aam admi can take a walk!
The budget for the rural self employment scheme, SGSY, has come down by Rs. 28 crores. The demands of the urban poor have been ignored and the much awaited urban employment guarantee scheme has not been announced.
During UPA I there was a lot of talk about opening up the banking and insurance sectors to foreign capital. But at that time the Congress-led UPA had to depend on the Left parties for their survival. And the Left ensured that the government could not go ahead with its malicious plans. As a result when the whole world was staggering under massive recession India remained insulated. The pangs of recession were not felt by us.
The announcement of impending legislations directed at liberalizing the sensitive financial sectors like insurance, banking and pension funds is meant to appease foreign finance capital. Individual foreign investors can now invest directly in Indian mutual funds which would facilitate the flow of speculative finance into the economy. The common man who toils all his life and puts aside his life’s savings in the banks or brings out insurance to tide over his old age will be hit the hardest when another recession hits the financial sector.
Union Budget 2011-12 reflects continuity of the same neo-liberal, corporate captive, anti-people policies spreading miseries for the millions to benefit the creamy layer who comprise of about 5 percent of our society. This budget will also benefit the foreign investors. But, sadly, it has very little for the teeming millions of the country who toil tirelessly to arrange one square meal a day. With no elections coming up in the next couple of years aam admi has been obliterated to cater to the interests of the handful.
Interestingly, the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, while delivering the budget speech in Parliament, mentioned aam admi only once. May be it was his way of signaling to the aam admi that this budget would not champion their causes, rather it would look after the interests of the corporate world and its denizens. It was a warning sign that UPA II was abandoning its aam admi agenda.
At a time when food inflation hovered around 15 percent, the annual inflation of primary articles stood at 15.77 percent and the fuel price index was 12.14 percent the Finance Minister presented the Union Budget of 2011-12 which is, at best, unimaginative and totally ignored the problems faced by the people and the economy. The common man is at his wit’s end to make ends meet. In this backdrop the Finance Minister announced an enormous slash of Rs. 20,000 crore in fuel, fertilizer and food subsidy, the three ingredients whose price rise hits the aam admi the hardest. The fact that this government is not serious about addressing the issue of food security is amply proved by the reduction of food subsidy by Rs. 27 crore. These announcements unveil the anti – poor face of the UPA II.
Through his budget speech the Finance Minister has given a message of the Government’s policy of patronizing the corporates, traders and speculators. Under the guise of augmenting food storage capacity cold chains and storage facilities have been provided infrastructure status knowing fully well that these post harvest storage facilities would be illegally used by the hoarders to artificially hike the food grain prices.
Even though the Finance Minister has admitted that more than 40 million tonnes of food grains are stored with the government ( which is much above the buffer stock norm ), the latter has no plans to propose any step to distribute the surplus grains at reduced prices through the Public Distribution System. The nation had watched aghast on national television millions of tonnes of food grains rotting out in the open. Even then the government declined to distribute those rotting grains amongst the overwhelming number of poor who survive on less than Rs. 20 per day (according to the Arjun Sengupta report). The argument put forward then was that free distribution of food grains would bring down prices which would discourage farmers from growing food crops.
The budgetary provisions, for agriculture, have remained much below the requirement and actually marked a decline both as proportion to overall budgetary expenditure and as percentage of GDP. Despite a target of 4 percent growth in agriculture the agricultural growth rate has hung around 2 percent on average. In such a disturbing scenario it is shocking that the budget provision for the Agriculture Department has been cut from last year. This may be because the poor, illiterate farmers living in the remotest parts of India do not follow the Union Budget and are, therefore, oblivious to the malevolent policies of the central government.
The budgetary decision to reduce direct tax to the tune of Rs. 11,500 crore while increasing the burden of indirect tax by Rs. 11,300 crore is another dubious decision of the government. This single decision exposes UPA II’s bias against the aam admi. Though surcharge on corporate taxes has been reduced the custom and excise duties on crude oil and petroleum products have remain unchanged. Crude oil price has shot up alarmingly in the international market. With excise and custom duties remaining unchanged the government allows itself the opportunity to raise the petroleum product price at regular intervals.
It appears that the only agenda of the government is to reduce subsidies, through direct and indirect means, on essentials like food, kerosene, diesel, LPG, fertilizers etc. all items that touch the lives of the aam admi.
The budget has failed miserably to declare any single concrete step for recovering black money as well as huge tax arrears, both within and outside the country. Not much has been said about containing tax evasion and other forms of tax leakages. When the country is reeling under one multi-crore scam after another, involving ministers and other senior officials of the government, the Finance Minister did not say much other than to pay lip service about probity in public life.
Social inclusion and equity remained small ticket add-ons in the Budget where the poor have been left out. The MGNREGA scheme, which was till last year tom-tommed as testimony of UPA’s concern for the aam admi because of its multi-thousand crore allocation fund, has lost its sheen. It found only a passing mention in the Finance Minister’s speech. Outlay to MGNREGA scheme has been frozen at Rs. 40,000 crore, despite the fact that wage hike would entail higher expenditure. It seems that the flagship scheme has run its course of yielding political dividend. So concern for aam admi can take a walk!
The budget for the rural self employment scheme, SGSY, has come down by Rs. 28 crores. The demands of the urban poor have been ignored and the much awaited urban employment guarantee scheme has not been announced.
During UPA I there was a lot of talk about opening up the banking and insurance sectors to foreign capital. But at that time the Congress-led UPA had to depend on the Left parties for their survival. And the Left ensured that the government could not go ahead with its malicious plans. As a result when the whole world was staggering under massive recession India remained insulated. The pangs of recession were not felt by us.
The announcement of impending legislations directed at liberalizing the sensitive financial sectors like insurance, banking and pension funds is meant to appease foreign finance capital. Individual foreign investors can now invest directly in Indian mutual funds which would facilitate the flow of speculative finance into the economy. The common man who toils all his life and puts aside his life’s savings in the banks or brings out insurance to tide over his old age will be hit the hardest when another recession hits the financial sector.
Union Budget 2011-12 reflects continuity of the same neo-liberal, corporate captive, anti-people policies spreading miseries for the millions to benefit the creamy layer who comprise of about 5 percent of our society. This budget will also benefit the foreign investors. But, sadly, it has very little for the teeming millions of the country who toil tirelessly to arrange one square meal a day. With no elections coming up in the next couple of years aam admi has been obliterated to cater to the interests of the handful.
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