CPI-M calls Union Budget anti-people, in stir mode
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, February 03 2023: Terming the Union budget presented by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the year 2023-24 as 'contractionary' and 'anti-people' Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is all set to hold nationwide protest against the anti-people and contractionary contents of the budget.

According to CPI-M Manipur state secretary Ksh Shanta, the party will demand removal of anti-people and contractionary contents from the Union budget and will accordingly launch a nationwide protest from February 22 to 28.Shanta said that the Union budget has come at a time when the national economy had been already slowed down even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, worsened during the two pandemic years and the post-pandemic recovery was adversely impacted by the global economic slowdown and predicted to be moving towards possible recession.

Under these circumstances, the budget should have addressed the core issues of job generation and boosting the growth of domestic demand.

However, the budget has not incorporated remedial measures to mitigate the situation.

On the contrary, it squeezes the government expenditures to reduce the fiscal deficit while giving further tax concession to the rich, he alleged.

The budget has come at a time when the Oxfam report has shown that the richest one per cent of the population in India has cornered 40.5 per cent of the wealth generated in the last two years.

Thus, it is a contractionary budget that will only aggravate the economic crisis, Shanta claimed.

According to Shanta, the increase in the total government expenditure for 2023-24 over the revised estimates for 2022-23 is a mere seven per cent, when the hike in the nominal GDP (with inflation) over the same period is estimated to be 10.5 per cent.

Thus, as a percentage of GDP, there is a reduction in government expenditure.

If interest payments are excluded, then this expenditure is only 6.4 per cent more than last year.

Once the implicit inflation rate of 4 per cent and increase in population of around 1 per cent are accounted for, this so called 'people-centric' budget will be akin to laying the ground work for further attacks on the livelihoods of the vast majority of our population, he said.

Shanta observed that when the unemployment rate is at a historic high, the budget has reduced the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) by 33 per cent while food subsidy has been cut by Rs 90,000 crore, fertiliser subsidy by Rs 50,000 crore and petroleum subsidy by Rs 6,900 crore.

Despite the devastation caused by the pandemic, Rs 9,255 crore of last year's allocation for health remained unspent.

Likewise, Rs 4,297 crore remained unspent in the education budget, Shanta said while highlighting that no hike was announced in the budget in the measly remuneration of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme workers.

He also alleged that the gender budget is only nine per cent of the total expenditure.

The SC budget is only 3.5 per cent against a population of 16 per cent and the ST budget is 2.7 per cent against a population of 8.6 per cent, he added.

Government talks about doubling farmers' income but the allocation for Prime Minister Kisan Fund has been reduced from Rs 68,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore.

The tax exemption limit has been raised from Rs 5 to 7 lakh thus providing some relief to the salaried sections.

However, this will be more than offset by inflation and cuts in social sector expenditure, making people spend more on essential services, including health and education, Shanta added.

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