Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha (RSS), has expressed dissatisfaction with several announcements made in the Union Budget for the financial year 2023-24, including “insufficient” support for the manufacturing sector at a time of unprecedented imports from China and trade deficit.
SJM, which promotes national self-reliance, also said the tax rebate announced in the Budget can have an adverse impact on savings being made by taxpayers.
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Ashwani Mahajan, SJM’s co-convener, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had presented the first complete Budget of ‘Amrit Kaal’and the last complete Budget of the Modi 2.0 Government before the Parliament on February 1, and as expected, the income tax burden (in the new tax regime) had been reduced for the middle class and the “ultra-rich”, which would have an impact on the total revenue of ₹37,000 crore.
“We at the Swadeshi Jagran Manch believe that the new income tax system may give relief to taxpayers in terms of ease in filing returns, with lower tax burden, but it can have an adverse impact on the savings being made by income taxpayers,” Mr. Mahajan said.
He said an emphasis on manufacturing had been anticipated in this Budget. “SJM expresses its dissatisfaction over the lack of sufficient efforts, including hiking of tariffs on products, both final as well as intermediate products,” Mr. Mahajan said.
“Today, the country is going through unprecedented imports from China and trade deficit, but the same couldn’t catch sufficient attention of the Finance Minister,” he added.
Commenting on government expenditure in the Budget, Mr. Mahajan said that according to the revised estimates for 2022-23, the total expenditure is expected to be approximately ₹42 lakh crore. In comparison, a provision of about ₹45 lakh crore has been made this year in the Budget estimates, which shows an increase in government expenditure of only 7%.
“The expenditure has been limited, perhaps with an aim to limit the fiscal deficit to 5.9%. However, the burden of fiscal prudence is not being felt on capital expenditure. Rather, increase in capex is a welcome part of the Budget,” he said.
The SJM expressed its happiness over the allocations for infrastructure, rural development, green growth, education, tourism and digitisation in the Budget.
“At the same time, we at the SJM impress upon the government to tweak the tax regime to promote savings by the middle class, which is an important source of government borrowing and capital formation,” Mr. Mahajan said, adding that the SJM urged the government to increase tariffs on products having sufficient excess capacity, aimed at promoting manufacturing in the country by curbing imports from China.
