Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday criticised the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for its poor allocation to priority sectors suh as health, agriculture, education, food security and employment generation while expressing concern over the mounting debt of the country during the regime of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rural employment
Speaking to reporters at a forest resort in H.D. Kote near here, Mr. Siddaramaiah regretted that the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme had come down by more than ₹25,000 crore in comparison to last year even though a large number of people had returned to their villages after losing their jobs in COVID-19.
The allocation to MGNREGA scheme for 2022-23 has not only been reduced by ₹ 25,000 crore in comparison to 2021-22, it has been reduced by more than ₹ 38,000 crore in comparison to 2020-21, he said. “Instead of increasing the allocation to ensure employment to the people, who had returned to their villages after losing jobs in COVID-19, the Government had cut the allocation.”
With a large number of small industries closing, unemployment in the country is rising. The Budget neither offers any programmes to revive the small industries nor offers any solution to the problem, he regretted.
He trained his guns on the Budget for not setting aside sufficient funds for the health sector despite threat of COVID-19 continuing to linger. Last year i.e. during 2021-22, the government had allocated ₹82,920 crore for the health sector. But, this year i.e 2022-23, the allocation is only ₹83,000 crore, which is an increase of barely ₹80 crore. “The vaccination programme is still continuing and there is uncertainty over how long the pandemic will continue”, he said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah feared that the reduction in subsidy by ₹79,638 crore to the food supplied under Food Security Act through Food and Civil Supplies Department will not only have an impact on the food supplied to the poor, but also on the supply of free rice to the poor.
Though the allocation for the higher education has increased by ₹4,779 crore, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the government had reduced funds for the Education department covering primary, secondary, technical education etc.
He said the Budget had also proposed to reduce the subsidy for fertilizers this year. The subsidy, which was ₹1,28,740 crore during 2020-21, came down to ₹1,40,258 crore last year (2021-22). This year (22-23), the subsidy has been brought down further to just ₹ 1,05,262 crore, which is about ₹ 35,000 crore less than last year. “This means that the fertilizer prices are set to increase further”, he lamented.
Though relief has been provided to people planning to buy ornaments, Mr. Siddaramaiah regretted that the demand of the farmers for minimum support price (MSP) finds no mention in the Budget. Also, he said that the corporate bodies tax had come down from 30 per cent to 22.5 percent, but prices of essential items such as petrol, diesel, gas, steel, and fertilizers continue to increase. “The corporate sector has become the priority of this government”, he said.
Debt
Mr. Siddaramaiah claimed that there would be an addition of ₹ 11.87 lakh crore this year to the country’s outstanding debt of ₹135.87 lakh crore, taking the total debt to more than ₹146 lakh crore.
He said the country’s debt stood at ₹53.11 lakh crore at the end of the tenure of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and had shot up by more than ₹ 93 lakh crore to reach ₹146 lakh crore during Mr. Narendra Modi’s tenure of eight years.
