THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) expressed dismay over the Rs 6.28 lakh crore stimulus package announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and said that it is nothing but yet another gimmick to hoodwink the people. It said that the measures announced under the package would neither provide the much needed relief to the crores of people whose livelihoods have been devastated during the second wave of Covid-19 nor can the package help in reviving the economy. Much like the ‘Atma Nirbhar’ package announced by the BJP government last year during the first wave of Covid 19, this too is also an exercise in deception, it said.

The CITU said that the focus of the package is mostly limited to extending loan guarantees and concessional credit. It offers nothing to the 2.2 crores workers who have lost their jobs and incomes during April-May 2021, during the second wave of the pandemic. It has nothing to provide succour to the 23 crore unorganised sector workers who have been pushed to below the minimum wage poverty line during the same period, it said. “Many of the crores of workers who lost their jobs and incomes during the first wave have not been able to find work even to this day. A large part of them comprise women workers. This package has nothing for them,” it said in its statement issued on June 29. 

“The problem that the economy is facing today is lack of demand. It is futile to think that extending loan guarantees or cheap loans would help revive the economy in conditions where there is no demand. What needs to be done today and what the CITU and all other trade unions have been demanding since last year is to put money into the pockets of the people to generate demand. The joint trade union platform, eminent economists and the Left parties have been demanding cash transfer of Rs 7,500 to the non income tax paying families. But this BJP government, committed to fiscal obscurantism, has been obstinately refusing to do that,” the CITU said.

CITU stressed on its demand of cash transfer of Rs 7,500 per month for six months for all non income tax paying families to generate demand that would trigger supply and revive the economy.