The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on Thursday is silent on the growing inequality in the country and the structural transformation of the economy.
Former chairman of the State Finance Commission M.A. Oommen said that after saying that the budget cannot be oblivious of the poor, nothing concrete had been provided for them. The proposal to increase foreign direct investment in the defence sector to 49 per cent was not a welcome step.
Former Cabinet Secretary R. Narayanan said the proposals to bring in more investments would lead to environmental degradation. The proposal for cleaning Ganga was good. Due importance should be given to protection and conservation of all water bodies.
Social activist Sonia George said the budget had chosen to address women’s issues from a safety angle alone and hence the contribution of women to industry, manufacturing sector, and such others had not been gauged. The name of MGNREGS, of which 97 per cent beneficiaries are women, had been changed. Kerala Public Expenditure Review Committee chairman Alwin Prakash said though public private participation and foreign direct investment had been found to be ineffective, those were being pursued without any deviation. There were no concrete suggestions to arrest inflation, Mr. Prakash said.
Centre for Environment and Development (CED) chairman V.K. Damodaran said the budget had failed to initiate people-oriented power generation by proposing rooftop solar panels to address the power deficit.