BUDGET 2022-23 presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not gone down well with major sections of the society including the working class, farmers and women. The unions representing these sections have criticised the budget calling it a reflection of the anti-people and pro-corporate nature of the BJP government. They have given a call for a two-day general strike on March 28-29 and resolved to hold protests across the country against the destructive policy regime and the anti-people budget. Their reactions to the budget are as follows.
Centre for India Trade Unions (CITU)
The claim of 60 lakh additional employment generation in five years is nothing but a hoax. The effective capital expenditure budget in 2022-23 is Rs 1.06 lakh crore revealing a marginal and insignificant rise compared to actual expenditure on the same head in 2021-22 and getting largely neutralised by the inflationary impact. In fact, the effective capital expenditure for 2022-23 is well below the actual capital receipt of the previous year by around Rs 63,000 crore. And even this budgeted capital expenditure will be mostly rooted through private corporates as repeatedly asserted by the minister.
The allocations for MSP for paddy and wheat has been slashed down by Rs 11,000 crore; the allocations for PM Fasal Bhima Yojana, PM-Kisan Yojana, Crop Husbandry, etc –all faced a drastic cut.
In the name of measures for further simplifying tax administration for facilitating compliance, in the current budget the government is actually indulging, rather promoting tax-evasion by the habitually defaulting and tax-evading corporate community. It is revealed that in 2020-21, tax concessions in the form of incentives to corporates was a whopping Rs 72,041 crore, over and above the huge tax default by the same big-business class of Rs 4.05 lakh crore.
Budget did not bother about the miseries being faced by the working people during the pandemic in the form of loss of livelihood and earnings and also widespread and rabid informalisation of employment. Despite demands for relief and expansion of social security universally for all, the budget remained absolutely in a denial mode for the working people who actually create wealth for the nation.
CITU calls upon the people march towards the two-day countrywide general strike on March 28-29, 2022 against this destructive, anti-people policy regime.
All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)
The union budget totally ignores the genuine demands of the farmers and seems like an act of revenge on the successful united farmers’ movement. No relief for farmers and agricultural labour has been announced. Farmers’ demands for assured procurement at remunerative prices and loan waivers have met with callous indifference. The total allocation was reduced by more than one lakh crore rupees, from Rs 4,74,750.47 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 3,70,303 crore. The share of rural development in the budget has also fallen from 5.59 per cent to 5.23 per cent. It has seen a cut in allocations for procurement, MGNREGA, crop insurance, food and fertiliser subsidy.
The finance minister has sought to create a hype that Rs 2.37 lakh crore is set aside for the procurement of paddy and wheat in 2022-23. In fact, this is lesser than the allocation of Rs 2.48 lakh crore made last year and the beneficiaries will also be drastically reduced to 1.63 crore, while beneficiaries last year were 1.97 crore; an exclusion of 34 lakh farmers while we have been demanding expansion to all crops and widening of the reach.
The allocation for procurement to the FCI and under the decentralised procurement scheme has actually been reduced by a whopping 28 per cent. Reduction in allocation and inflation will altogether result in a significant decline in procurement in 2022-23. Allocation of funds for fertiliser subsidy has been reduced by 25 per cent. Coming as it does when already fertiliser prices are shooting up; this is going to have an adverse impact on productivity.
The allocation for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana which was Rs16,000 crore in the last budget has been reduced to Rs 15,500 crore. The allocation for PM-KISAN is 9 per cent lesser than what was originally announced at its inception in 2019. The earlier claim that 14 crore farmer households would benefit has been scaled down to 12.5 crore households. However, while Rs 6,000 each would require Rs 75,000 crores, only Rs 68,000 crores have been allotted.
Allocation for crop husbandry has been cut by Rs 26,000 crores (18 per cent); allocation for food storage & warehousing by Rs 84,000 crores (28 per cent). The Economic Survey had pointed out that the average monthly income per agricultural household is only Rs 10,218. However, the average income from cultivation per person in a day is merely Rs 27. Rather than double farmers’ incomes the seven years of Narendra Modi-led BJP government has shrunk.
In times of pandemic when employment opportunities have shrunk, the allocation for MGNREGA has been actually cut. While the revised estimate of 2021-22 was Rs 98, 000 crores, this budget has only allocated Rs 73,000 crores. A recent study had estimated that ensuring 100 days/household under MGNREGA would require about Rs.2.64 lakh crore including for clearing arrears of around Rs 21,000 crore. Clearly, the poor agricultural labourers are not a priority for the BJP government.
All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU)
This is an anti-people and pro-corporate, which ignores the huge problem of unemployment and gives further concessions to the corporates. The rural poor, dalits, adivasis and women are completely missing from the central budget.
The present Union Budget for 2022-23 is a further step in cutting down on the earnings and support base of the poorest sections of society as there is a reduction of 25.5 per cent in the allocation for MGNREGA in the budget as the figure remains frozen at Rs 73000 crore.
Its impact is as follows: 20 per cent of the budget outlay will go into clearing the shortfalls of the previous year, with the expected shortfall for 2021-22 being no less than Rs 21,000 crore when the minimum required (according to the recent study) will be no less than 2.64 lakh crore rupees, a massive shortfall of nearly Rs 2 lakh crore. Its disastrous effects were already seen last October when MGNREGA had to discontinue in many states in the country.
Lack of funds will dry up MGNREGA’s financial support even quicker this year. Clearly, unemployment will strike hard in rural areas. Its effect on the food intake will be sharper as food subsidy is further reduced by 27per cent from the revised budget of Rs 2,86,269 crore for the year 2021-22 to Rs 2,06,831 crore in the current budget. India is already ranked at 101 in the hunger index and hunger will stalk our villages in a few months’ time unless the figure is doubled or the government doubles the outlay at least.
All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA)
The gender budget has decreased from 0.71 per cent to 0.66 per cent of the GDP and the allocations for the ministry of women and child development remain well under 0.10 per cent of the total projected expenditure in 2022-23.
Women are the major beneficiaries in the schemes like MGNREGS, National Social Assistance Programme, and schemes for the welfare of SC, ST, minorities and other vulnerable sections. The combined expenditure on these schemes has reduced from 3.2 per cent to 2.5 per cent and the combined budget of mission shakti, samarthya and vatsalya is well below 1 per cent of the total expenditure. This shows that the government’s vision for ‘Amrit Kaal’ has no place for women.
Girl students have suffered hugely in the pandemic, especially because of the promotion of online education. This budget unabashedly wants to implement the anti-girl/women New Education Policy and promotes large scale online and virtual education. The budget envisions education through television, e-vidya and digital university. The stagnant level of funding for educational programmes and sports for girl students implies that budgetary allocations for education will be diverted from scholarships and expansion of physical infrastructure to online learning, and the needs of girl students will be ignored.
All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH)
The allocation for ‘saksham anganwadi and poshan 2.0’ (earlier umbrella ICDS scheme) in budget 2022-23 is Rs 20,263.07 crore whereas the allocation last year was Rs 20,105 crore. If we take into account the inflation there is an actual reduction in the budget allocation.
The finance minister made an announcement that her government will upgrade two lakh anganwadis “that have better infrastructure and audio-visual aids, powered by clean energy and providing an improved environment for early child development.” We, the workers and helpers who run the anganwadi centres that lack basic infrastructure like drinking water and toilets would like to ask the minister as to what magic she would weave to make better infrastructure for the two lakh anganwadi centres with no financial allocation.
It is appalling to find that at a time when malnutrition and hunger are at alarming levels in the country, the saksham anganwadi and poshan2.0 schemes renamed in the last budget speech is yet to finalise their guidelines. Between March 2016 and March 2021, beneficiaries receiving supplementary nutrition fell by 19 per cent from 102 million to 83.2 million. For children, it fell from 82.9 million to 67.5 million (by 15.4 per cent). At the same time, the number of children aged between six months to six years was estimated to increase by 7.6 per cent. During the same period, the number of children aged between three to six years, receiving pre-school education declined from 35 million to 23 million.
National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD)
Unlike last time, which saw a nearly 12 per cent reduction in allocations to the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities, this time there has been a marginal increase. However, even then, there is a shortfall of Rs 112.97 crores as compared to the 2020-21 budget estimates. This is so even in the case of the total allocated for the national programmes for the welfare of persons with disabilities, which has seen a shortfall of Rs 20 crore as compared to 2020-21 estimates. Same also with the National Trust as well as the social security and welfare of persons with disabilities, which too have estimates less than what was allocated in 2020-21.
Notwithstanding the adverse experience of the pandemic, the government has refused to heed the demand for free and universal health coverage for all disabled; removing the income criteria in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana for persons with disabilities as also a substantial increase in allocations made towards mental health programmes.
On top of it, despite escalating prices and disability-related costs, the centre refuses to enhance disability pension, which has remained at a constant Rs 300 per month for the past decade and more. There has been no announcement of any relief to tide over the pandemic situation and job loss. Even the ex-gratia of Rs 1,000 announced in 2020, according to the economic survey 2022, covered only 2.82 crore beneficiaries. Apart from the disabled, the beneficiaries include widows and senior citizens also.
The announcement made to amend 80DD of the Income Tax Act to allow for maturity of an insurance policy even while the parent/guardian of the disabled ward is alive, is welcome. But this has come three years after the supreme court gave directions to the centre on the issue. However, there is no assurance on providing life and other insurance, including coverage for assistive devices and rehabilitation needs of the disabled.
Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch(AARM)
The union budget of 2022-2023 is a cruel betrayal of the needs of the tribal communities of India. It is not an amrit kaal but a vish kaal for tribal communities, because none of the urgent issues such as hunger, joblessness, loss of livelihoods, which haunt tribal communities has been even remotely addressed in this budget.
According to the accepted norms, the government must allocate budgetary funds for STs and SCs in proportion to their percentage in the population. Even by the 2011 census, 8.6 per cent of the total budget expenditure must be allocated for the STs. But according to Statement 10B in the budget papers which gives the total amount earmarked for STs( Special Tribal Component - STC), the government has allocated just 2.26 per cent. This means that tribal communities in India have been robbed of Rs 2.5 lakh crore.
There is another way in which tribal communities have been robbed by the Modi government shown in this budget. Even the inadequate funds that government declares that they have allocated for tribal communities, are not actually released. For example, look at the record of the ministry of tribal affairs. In last year’s budget, the allocation was Rs 7,484 crore. But of this allocation, only Rs 6,126 crore were spent. In other words, the tribal ministry did not spend 19 per cent of the money it was allocated. Other shocking examples are that at a time when tribal students were forced to drop out of schools because of exclusion from online education, Rs 292 crores meant for post-matric scholarships were not given. Rs 400 crore meant to set up Eklavya residential schools for tribal children were not spent. Rs 300 crore meant for mid-day meals were not spent. Tribal children were dying of hunger but the money allocated on paper was never spent. The government had promised tribal universities in AP and Telangana but just Rs 2 crore was allocated out of which only Rs 47 lakh was actually given and now in this budget only Rs 1.50 crore are allocated.
Women will be particularly affected by the unprecedented cuts in subsidies for gas cylinders in the STC from Rs 1,064 crore in 2020-2021 to just Rs 172 crore in this budget. All the claims that the Modi government is concerned for women’s health affected by smoke from open fires for cooking has gone up in smoke. With LPG even further out of the reach of most households, the burden of foraging for firewood and making dung cakes would fall on women.
The STC under the Modi government is cheating the tribals by diverting the money meant directly for tribal development into other expenditures. 41 departments/ministries are mandated to be part of STC. But for example, an amount of Rs 4,500 crores spent on building highways is shown as part of expenditure for tribals, when 50 per cent of tribal villages have no public transport. The STC is replete with such blatant diversions. This is nothing but cheating the tribal communities.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha
After the unprecedented agitation of farmers over the past one and a half years, farmers of the country expected that a sensitive government would have come up with specific effective measures in this budget to address their situation of not getting remunerative prices, facing crop losses due to natural calamities, and sinking deeper into debt. Instead, the government reduced the share of agriculture and allied activities in the total budget from 4.3 per cent last year to 3.8 per cent this year, showing that it wants to punish the farmers for their successful movement.
Farmers were also waiting to hear the story about doubling their incomes, now that we are in 2022. After the prime minister declared in Feburary 2016 that farmers’ incomes would be doubled within six years, every budget speech and every speech on agriculture by the ruling party highlighted this promise. Now we have reached 2022 and there was not even a mention by the finance minister. As per the government’s Doubling of Farmers’ Income report, the benchmark farm household income for 2015-16 was Rs 8,059 and this was promised to be doubled in real terms, taking inflation into account. This puts the target income in 2022 at Rs 21,146. But, NSSO 77th Round shows that in 2018-19, the average farm household income was only Rs 10,218. Projecting at the growth rate of GVA in agriculture for next three years, the income in 2022 is still below Rs 12,000 per month, which is very far from the target of doubling the income.
While the farmers are demanding MSP guarantee for all crops, the budget speech mentioned only procurement for paddy and wheat from 1.63 crore farmers which form about 10 per cent of all farmers in the country. Even in the case of paddy and wheat, the budget speech shows that the procurement has fallen in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21. While the finance minister proudly declared that the procurement of wheat and paddy in 2021-22 “will cover 1208 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and paddy from 163 lakh farmers, and 2.37 lakh crore direct payment of MSP value to their accounts,” these figures are a serious reduction compared to 2020-21, when 1286 lakh metric tonnes were procured from 197 lakh farmers, and Rs 2.48 lakh crores were paid to the farmers. The number of benefited farmers in 2021-22 has fallen by 17 per cent and the quantity procured has fallen by 7 per cent from 2020-21.
The allocation to the PM-AASHA scheme (Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan) tells the story of the government’s commitment to MSP – it fell from Rs 1500 crore to Rs 500 crore to Rs 400 crore and this year to just RS 1 crore.
The allocation for the Price Support Scheme-Market Intervention Scheme is Rs 1500 crores this year, while the actual expenditure last year was Rs 3596 crores. These amounts are paltry compared to anywhere between Rs 50,000 to 75,000 crores which is the estimated shortfall between MSP and the actual price obtained by the farmers in the markets nationwide.
In most of the important schemes for farmers, the performance has been disappointing and there is no sign of improvement. Many states have withdrawn from the flagship Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) including the pradhan mantri’s own state of Gujarat and many major states such as West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The PM-KISAN scheme was declared to begin with 12 crore farmers and expand coverage to 15 crore farmers. Even after three years, it has only reached 11 crore farmers with an allocation of Rs 68,000 crores. The PM-Krishi Sinchai Yojana had an allocation of Rs 4000 crores in 2021-22 but had an expenditure of only Rs 2000 crores. Now it has been subsumed under an expanded umbrella of RKVY. The RKVY scheme itself had an allocation of Rs 3712 crore last year out of which only Rs 2000 crores were spent.
On the whole, this budget has shown that the government does not care about the welfare of farmers.
SKM denounces this anti-farmer budget, and calls upon the farmers of the country to prepare for another massive struggle for the minimum support price and other burning issues.
Kerala Government
Kerala chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan said that the union budget 22-23 does not provide the expected relief to the various sectors facing a crisis due to the Covid pandemic. He said that the allocation for the MNREGA for 2022-23 is Rs 73,000 crore, which is Rs 25,000 crore less than the revised estimate for 2021-22. During the Covid period, an amount of Rs 39,000 crore was earmarked for vaccination but now only Rs 5,000 crore has been allocated. Overall, there has been a nominal increase of 4.63 per cent only in the total expenditure of the central government, he said.
Vijayan added that the move to cut down the food subsidies by 28 per cent would result in the weakening of the country's public distribution system. The reduction of 25 per cent in fertiliser subsidy is a major issue affecting our agriculture sector. Making the tax share of the cooperative sector at par with that of the corporates is not something that will help the cooperative sector in any way. The fact that the amount set aside for rural development is less than the allocation for last year will also create problems for rural development, he said.
Kerala's perpetual demand for sanctioning an AIIMS has been ignored. The need for a separate railway zone has also met a similar fate. It may be noted that the fund allocation for Central Public Sector Undertakings in Kerala is inadequate to the needs. The proposed semi-high-speed K-Rail project is also not mentioned in the budget, the chief minister said.
The demand of the states to extend the GST compensation for another five years was not considered. Similarly, the budget has not accepted the state’s demand to hike the credit limit to 5 per cent. The reduction in the amount set aside to cover the revenue deficits of the states will also put severe pressure on the financial position of the states.
