March 28, 2022
Sukhendu Sekhar Ray’s speech on The Appropriation Bill, 2022 and The Finance Bill, 2022
Thank you, Mr. ViceChairman, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. While participating in this discussion on the Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill, the first thing that occurs to my mind is that this Government has given a return gift to the nation after the elections in the five States recently held. First of all, the petrol and diesel prices have been risen six times in seven days. LPG cylinders are costlier by Rs.50 and it is almost Rs.1,000 per cylinder. Prices of kerosene oil have doubled. Edible oil prices are up by 25 to 40 per cent. There is 11 per cent hike in essential medicines and there will be further rise in the coming months according to reports. Sir, rise in prices of cereals,
fruits, vegetables is driving up the food inflation. Petrol price for bulk users has been increased by Rs.25 per litre and jet fuel price has also been increased by 18 per cent. Everybody knows in this country that when the price of bulk users, particularly of diesel, is increased, there will be cascading effect on all the essential commodities because of the transportation of the goods from one station to another. Moody’s Investor Services has estimated that fuel retail has together lost around Rs.19,000 crores in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during elections in five States because the Government did not want to rationalize the price during elections because of the political reasons, and after five six month, it has been doubled, tripled and going up every day. My submission to the Government would be that it needs to be ensured that these losses are not entirely transferred to the common people. So far as the Finance Bill is concerned, it was passed in Lok Sabha after accepting 39 Amendments to the Bill that was tabled! Why were there so many Amendments? Was it because of poor drafting? Was it because of careless proof-reading or failure to take concrete stakeholder consultations and feedback-gathering, ahead of introducing the Bills in Parliament? Everything is done in a hush-hush manner and, all of a sudden, it is tabled in Parliament, either in this House or in the other House; so far as the Finance Bill is concerned, it is tabled naturally in the other House.
Sir, the Government is emptying out the piggy banks, borrowings from small savings. Small savings are designed to support households and pensioners, not to finance the Government’s deficit. In 2020-21, the Government budgeted to borrow Rs. 2.4 lakh core from small savings, but ended up borrowing more than double of this figure. For 2022-23, the Government has budgeted for Rs. 5.6 lakh crore, a figure bound to increase, as it is lower than last year’s revised estimates.Sir, there are poor allocations for marginalised groups. This year’s Budget has allocated Rs. 70 crore for the rehabilitation of those involved in the manual scavenging under the Self Employment Scheme for
Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SMS). This is 30 per cent less than the last year’s allocation of Rs. 100 crore. Shockingly, even this Rs. 100 crore was revised down to Rs. 43.31 crore. Why isn’t the Government able to
utilise the allocations made towards Manual Scavenging? Is there no seriousness in ensuring that the people are not forced to risk their lives and dignity like this? Instead the Government tells us in this House that no workers have died due to manual scavenging! It is a matter of shame on the part of the Government authorities! The Central Government has SHREYAS, an umbrella programme, comprising four highly important higher education programmes, namely, National Fellowship for SCs, National Overseas Scholarships for SCs, Top Class Education for SC Students, and free coaching for SC and OBC students. But this House will be shocked to know that it saw a combined allocation of only Rs. 364 crore! So far as women and children are concerned, the Gender Budget has
decreased from 0.71 per cent of the GDP in the revised estimates for 2021- 22 to 0.66 per cent in the estimates of 2022-23, according to an analysis of the All India Democratic Women’s Association. I don’t know how far it is
true, but the Government should be in a position to tell this House as to what the truth is about. Sir, at Rs. 92,736.5 crore, the children’s Budget has also dropped from 2.46 per cent of the expenditure this fiscal to 2.35 per
cent in the next fiscal. Between April and December, 2021, only 48 per cent of the approved Budget for Mid-day Meal had been released. For ICDS, it was 52 per cent. The allocations for Mid-day Meals are 11 per cent lower than the Budget Estimates for the previous year. Sir, so far as education is concerned, the Budget allocation made last
year saw a 6 per cent decrease from the Budget allocation made in 2020-21. This year, the Budget allocation saw an increase of 12 per cent as compared to the last year’s, but only a 5 per cent increase over the Budget allocation
of 2020-21. The entire allocation on education for the previous year has not been used in spite of the Economic Survey finding an increase in the number of children not enrolled in schools after the pandemic. Ironically, the total
expenditure in education is less than one per cent of the GDP whereas the cash-strapped States are contributing three to four times than the Centre. The States are more effective than the Central Government in providing
funds for expenditure on education head.Sir, my next point is, the Government has made tall claims about resource mobilisation. According to me, the main target of this Government for resource mobilisation is only to sell out the public properties lock, stock and barrel. They have not spared any sector, any of the public sectors like airports, ports, rail, banks, insurance and even miniratna companies of the public sector. I am now coming to one or two provisions of the Constitution. Article 36 of the Constitution deals with the Directive Principles of the State Policy. This should be a Gita or a Quran or a Bible for any Government in the governance of the country. …(Interruptions)… सर, यह संिवधान की बात है। आप पहले समिझए, िफर बोिलए, समझनेके बाद बंगाल भी बोिलए, गुजरात भी बोिलए। Sir, I am submitting my next point to you. Article 38(2) says and I quote, “The State shall, in particular, strive to minimise the inequalities in income, and endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status,..” Then, Article 39 (b) says, “…that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good;” and Article 39 (c) says “…that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment.” And what is happening? When the Modi Government
came to power or rather the BJP Government came to power — I stand corrected — when the BJP Government came to power in 2014, there were 103 billionaires and they had Rs. 22 lakh crores of wealth at that point of time. In 2021, i.e. last year’s assessment, it rose from 103 billionaires to 142 billionaires and these 142 billionaires are having Rs. 53 lakh crores wealth. And what is the average of our total Budget? It is only Rs. 35 lakh crores. So, the Government Budget cover is Rs. 35 lakh crores and 142 billionaires are having Rs. 53 lakh crores of assets. So this is the inequality which is detrimental to the common good as enshrined in the Constitution under the head of the achievements of State policy. Therefore, I urge upon the Government to follow the constitutional provisions in letter and spirit rather
than to sell out everything to the big corporate, the crony capitalists. It seems, to mobilise resources, this Government has become bankrupt or insolvent, and the Insolvency and the Bankruptcy Code may be made
applicable for the Government also because of the figures I have mentioned before you. It is crystal clear from the figures that the Government has totally surrendered to the crony capitalists and all the economic policies of
the Government are being dictated upon by the crony capitalists and this Government is only implementing their policies. So this Government is an agency. This Government has become an agency of the crony capitalists. So, these are my submissions. Thank you very much.
