THE union budget 2021-22, once again proved that the Narendra Modi government is not ready to change its policies of impoverishing the people, and enriching the crony corporates. The government is completely surrendering to the corporates and imposing slavery on the working class as well as the peasantry. Below we publish the statements issued by various mass organisations, on the union budget.

BUDGET MANTRA: SQUEEZE KISAN

The All India Kisan Sabha said that budget has completely disregarded the farmers protesting across the country demanding fair remuneration. In 2020-21, the budgeted allocation for agriculture was Rs 1,34,349 crore, which has fallen to Rs 1,22,961 crore in 2021-22. There has been an overall reduction of 8 per cent in allocations towards agriculture even in nominal terms. While in 2019-20 and 2020-21, the procurement of rice and wheat was higher because the open market prices were too low and the government was forced to procure more grain although the procurement levels remained much less than the requirement and a vast majority of farmers ended up selling their produce at low prices. On the other hand, distribution of grains through the public distribution system (PDS) had to be raised in 2020-21 given the Covid-19 situation. If we keep these aside, the spending for most schemes in agriculture declined in 2020-21, and shows no promise of rise in 2021-22. For instance, the PM-Kisan scheme was provided a budget allocation of Rs 75,000 crore in 2020-21, but the actual expenditure was only Rs 65,000 crore. This shows the hollowness of the government’s claim that it used the PM-Kisan scheme to help farmers during the lockdown period. Further, only Rs 65,000 crore has been allocated for 2021-22. Just to give another example, in the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, the actual expenditure in 2019-20 was Rs 2,700 crore and the budgeted expenditure for 2020-21 was Rs 4,000 crore. But the actual expenditure in 2020-21 was Rs 2,563 crore, which is lower than the actual expenditure in 2019-20.

The finance minister continued to state the falsehood that MSPs are already 50 per cent above the cost of production. The truth is that the government considers the A2+FL cost as the cost of production and not the C2 cost as suggested by the Swaminathan Commission. It is also a fact that a majority of farmers in India are still outside the procurement network, and are denied access to MSPs. The finance minister has herself stated that only 1.54 crore farmers benefited from MSPs for paddy and wheat in 2020-21. This is an admission that a vast majority of farmers have not benefited from the MSP-based procurement. In fact, its medium-term plan is to reduce procurement, which is visible through its insistence on implementing the three farm laws. The rise in food subsidy is just illusory. The government has over the past few years failed to pay its dues to the FCI and was forcing the FCI to borrow high-interest loans from the NSSF. It is welcome that the budget has announced its intent of not burdening the FCI with loans, but it has remained silent on the past dues to be paid to the FCI. Unless these dues are paid, the financial viability of the FCI will remain stressed.

The budget provides a roadplan for greater privatisation garbing it under monetisation. The privatisation of public infrastructure includes warehouses run by NAFED. This is in continuation with already existing agreements between the FCI and Adani Logistics for building and managing silos. Further, the government has announced extension of the ‘Operation Greens’ scheme to 22 perishable commodities. The scheme provides credit subsidy to promote agri-logistics, which at present is largely controlled by large agro-based companies. The budget therefore provides the vision of agri-business-led infrastructure development. The budget speech gave much emphasis on infrastructure development. With a focus on large scale infrastructure projects through private partnerships, the budget maintains a dead silence on land acquisition and compensation. Considering the unemployment scenario in rural India, which was at 9 per cent even in December, 2020 according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), it is inexcusable that the finance minister’s speech did not have a single mention of MGNREGA.

The budget has also given a raw deal to the livestock farmers. This shows the sheer doubletalk of a government whose spokespersons praise the role of cattle as “gau-mata”. The actual spending for the department of animal husbandry and dairying was Rs 2,706 crore in 2019-20. This fell to Rs 2,630 crore in 2020-21. The budgeted allocation for 2021-22 is Rs 3,057 crore, which is hardly a rise in real terms.

GOVT ON SELLING SPREE
OF NATIONAL ASSETS

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions said that budget demonstrated the continuity of the same cruel indifference to the continuing distress and sufferings thrust upon the mass of the working people. In MNREGA, the budget drastically cut down allocation by 41 per cent of what it actually spent in 2020-21 although rural unemployment and joblessness have increased phenomenally. In jobs and skill development, allocation has been cut down by 35 per cent compared to allocation in the last budget. The FM also indicated the government move to “bring down the number of centrally sponsored schemes” in line with the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission.

Entire emphasis of the budgetary exercise remained on promoting “ease of doing business” for the corporates and big business, both foreign and domestic, by way of easing the burden of compliance of their statutory obligations under the Companies Act, and also in the matter of direct tax assessment and recovery of unpaid taxes, besides numerous exemptions on various heads. While lamenting on financial crunch and low revenue generation during the pandemic, the finance minister did not utter a single word about the need to recover huge accumulation of unpaid direct taxes (corporate and income tax) of Rs 10,57 lakh crore in the process of their last five-year rule; of this Rs 2.29 lakh crore tax dues are not under any dispute and yet remained unrecovered. During the same period, the corporate tax rate has been drastically slashed, statedly for promoting better compliance.
The budget has arrogantly reiterated its programme of wholesale privatisation programme of mostly profit-making PSUs, while declaring closure of all loss-making PSUs, even those in core and strategic sector like pharmaceuticals, heavy manufacturing, etc. The entire focus is on selling the assets including land at the disposal of these PSUs, railways, ports, etc under their programme of monetization combined with privatisation. Rs 1.75 lakh crore is targeted to be garnered through privatisation in the current fiscal. Reforms proposed by the government in railways, urban transport, gas-pipe lines and also electricity discom sector, are virtually privatisation through the PPP route. Increasing FDI to 74 per cent in insurance sector along with pushing through IPO in LIC and privatisation of public sector banks after recapitalisation from national exchequer are disastrous.
Reduction in customs duty on steel semis and scrap is going to affect severely the domestic steel industry, particularly the integrated steel plants, both in public and private sector. The statement of the finance minister citing labour codes that they will ensure universal social security and statutory minimum wage for all, is totally devoid of truth. These labour codes are going to abolish all labour rights including that to even ask for social security and minimum wage and that is why the entire trade union movement has rejected forthright these labour codes and demanded their scrapping.

DEEP CUT IN ICDS ALLOCATION

The All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers has said that the budget allocation for the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme has been drastically cut down by 30 per cent from the allocation made in the last budget. The budget estimate for ICDS in budget 2020-21 was Rs 28,557.38 crore, which is now reduced by Rs 8,452.38 crore to Rs 20,105 crore. Ironically the name of the scheme has been changed to ‘Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0’. This is when the recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS – 5) has shown an increase in malnutrition in the period 2014-19. The UNICEF has recently pointed out that our country will lose three lakh children under five years in the next six months due to poverty, hunger and malnutrition if this issue is not urgently addressed. Instead of strengthening the schemes for nutrition, health and education, the government is pushing for privatisation and PPP model in these sectors.

In spite of the exemplary work done by anganwadi workers and helpers along with other frontline workers like ASHAs in fighting the pandemic risking their lives, the government has not considered even increasing their remuneration or assuring any kind of social security or pension to nearly one crore scheme workers. The budget, has cut down the allocation for the Mid-Day Meal Scheme by Rs 1,400 crore.

BUDGET ANTI-WOMEN

The All India Democratic Women’s Association denounced the budget as anti-women and noted that the government had ignored the difficulties and penury faced by marginalized sections. Their concerns have been neglected within this budget which has seen severe cut backs in public expenditure. The gender budget is facing a steep reduction from a revised estimate Rs 2.07 lakh crore (or 1.06 per cent of GDP) in 2020-2021 to Rs 1.53 lakh crore or 0.4 per cent of the GDP. The allocations of the ministry of women and child development are also abysmal at Rs 3,310 crore. The reduction in the overall gender budget is reflected in important cutbacks in expenditure on nutrition and food security.

There has been an increase in allocation for the gender component of the National Rural Livelihood Mission by about Rs 2,000 crore, but this increase is linked to capacity of women to bear the burden of credit. In other words, the increased allocation is largely for credit. There are insignificant changes in animal husbandry and fisheries sectors too. In overall terms, this means that the women have not been given livelihood support. This is also accompanied by cutbacks in the National Social Assistance Scheme, including widow pensions etc. The revised estimate (based on expenditure) for the National Social Assistance Scheme was Rs 42,617.22 crore in 2020-2021 and this has been reduced to Rs 9,200 crore in 2021-2022. This implies that the government does not intend to support the most vulnerable sections of society with extra or even increased assistance. It is silent on universal social protection for all women in informal employment and makes no institutional provision for their recognition as ‘workers’.  The situation with women’s security is even more abysmal. The much-touted Mission Shakti, amalgamating all schemes for women’s security and empowerment, got an allocation of Rs 3,019 crore, which is about 13 per cent lower than the expenditure on all these schemes put together in 2020-2021.

DISABLED GIVEN THE COLD SHOULDER

The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) said there is substantial reduction in budgetary support to the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities. Even the meagre and inadequate allocation of Rs 1,325.39 crore estimated last time has been further reduced to Rs 1,171.77 crore this time. This substantial reduction of nearly 12 per cent will adversely impact various schemes and programmes that are being undertaken by the department. The Scheme for Implementation for Persons with Disabilities Act sees a cut in its allocation from Rs 251.50 crore to Rs 209.77 crore. The National Trust which caters to persons with autism, cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, etc is also witnessing lesser budgetary support. It has been reduced from Rs 39.50 crore to Rs 30 crore. Even allocations to the National Programme for Prevention of Blindness have been reduced by nearly 50 per cent from Rs 20 crore to Rs 10.50 crore as compared to last year. Grant-in-aid to state governments has also been reduced substantially.

When more disabled people are joining the ranks of the unemployed, it would have been prudent to enhance allocations for the National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation to enable it to provide loans to small businesses set up by disabled people. On the contrary, budgetary support to NHFDC has been drastically reduced from Rs 41 crore provisioned in the 2019-20 budget to a mere Rs 0.01 crore this time. The announcements made to vigorously pursue privatisation of various public sector undertakings will adversely impact the disabled also. The total expenditure earmarked for the national programmes for welfare of persons with disabilities has been reduced from Rs 655 crore to Rs 584 crore. The total towards schemes/projects has been reduced from Rs 780 crore to Rs 709.77 crore this time. The total expenditure towards social security and welfare has seen a reduction from Rs 1,126.79 crore to Rs 988.59 crore. Disability pension continues to be stagnant at Rs 300 for the past many years.

In the pandemic situation, which saw a huge escalation in the number of mental health cases, the allocations made towards mental health displays the total lack of acknowledgement of the crisis. Allocations to the National Mental Health Programme remains constant at Rs 40 crore. No support has been earmarked for the National Institute of Mental Health & Research for the last two years. However, unlike last time, there has been a slight increase in allocations to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru and the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur.

What is even more glaring is the complete omission of flagship programme started by this government the Accessible India campaign. The government remains content with bestowing divine status and a label of divyang, even while pursuing policies that confine disabled citizens to the margins.