The Left parties on Thursday described the Budget proposals as a corporate-friendly exercise with the focus on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Briefing mediapersons soon after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wrapped up his Budget Speech, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said “this is a payback budget to all those who financed the Modi campaign’’.
In a detailed critique of the Budget, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said the debut budget of the BJP Government expresses deep commitment to continue the trajectory of reforms of benefitting foreign and domestic capital by emphasising on larger FDI flows and enlarged avenues for PPP projects.
“Fiscal consolidation is sought to be effected through contraction of public expenditures and not by increasing revenues through taxing the rich. Thus it is a recipe for further enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor,’’ the Polit Bureau statement said.
Further, according to the CPI(M), the Budget fails to propose measures to increase employment growth through revamping manufacturing growth. “Investments are low and there is no attempt to raise domestic demand; rather the Budget essentially relies on incentives to private investment through investment-linked deductions that grossly failed to raise investment in the earlier years.’’
In a related statement, the CPI said the increase in FDI limit in insurance and defence sectors would be dangerous for economic development as well as growth of domestic companies. Also, the sale of shares of PSU banks would weaken the domestic financial sector and make them vulnerable to foreign financial institutions.
