Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal sounded cautiously optimistic about a post-pandemic economic recovery in his 2022-23 Budget speech in the Assembly on Friday.
His address also assumed a global character, dwelling on the conflict in Ukraine and the spectre of a Third World War fought with nuclear weapons. Such an eventuality could upset the economic opportunities thrown up by a receding COVID-19 pandemic., he said.
Mr. Balagopal said the COVID-19 impelled isolation was ending. Life and economic activity were fast returning to normalcy. State GST collection (January-February) had recorded a robust growth of 14.5%. It was a positive indicator.
However, the pandemic could return. A fourth wave could swamp the world and wipe out the small gains, he cautioned.
Ukraine crisis
A ruinous thermo-nuclear war that could engulf the whole of Europe and possibly the world remained a frighteningly stark prospect given the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict, he said.
Mr. Balagopal evoked harrowing memories of the devastation, loss of human life and the blight of radiation caused by atomic weaponry in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War to make a strong pitch for global peace.
Global peace meet
He said world peace should be a people’s movement. He earmarked ₹2 crore for a “Global Peace Conference” on nuclear disarmament.
Mr. Balagopal’s speech had profound political and social undertones. He said corporates thrived while the commoner suffered during the pandemic and blamed the Centre for the rising economic inequity.
Anti-farmer and worker policies provoked historic proletarian protests across the country. “India ranked high in inequity and poverty indicators. It was a national shame caused by the Centre’s corporate appeasement policy,” he said.
Kerala model
COVID-19 had caused widespread loss of livelihood. The Centre failed to reach money into the hands of the ordinary person to ramp up consumption. The 2022-23 Central Budget was a letdown, he said.
Mr. Balagopal pitched the vaunted “Kerala Model” as an alternative to globalisation. He said the BJP at the Centre had merely pursued the path of economic neoliberalism ushered in by the previous Congress governments.
He slammed the Centre’s bid to disinvest in critical sectors and lamented the lack of fiscal federalism. The Centre provided tax reprieves to corporates while it fleeced the common folk by increasing indirect taxes and surcharges on fuel and other essential commodities.
