March 24, 2025
Lok Sabha MP Pratima Mondal’s speech on The Finance Bill, 2025
Madam, on behalf of the All India Trinamool Congress, I rise to speak on the Finance Bill, 2025. Madam, Aristotle known as the father of political science, had rightly said in his book, Politics, that the best political community is the one, where the middle class holds significant influence. But the plight of middle class in India is pitiful. They are subjected to exorbitant taxes, even in times when they are facing issues like, inadequate increment, unstable employment opportunity, and decreasing employment generation. Moreover, the private companies are being forced to shift to other locations like Singapore, Dubai, as they are harassed by the Government for taxes and political donation. Madam, our youth, the future of our nation, is facing employment crisis. The Periodic Labour Force Survey showed youth unemployment rate at 10.2 per cent for the year 2024. Also, as of January 2025, India’s economic growth is projected to slow to 6.4 per cent in this fiscal year. The dream of Viksit Bharat by 2047 are just empty words with such low labour force participation and jobless growth. If educated graduates are not getting jobs, if the basic needs of people are not being met, if more than half the people of our country live in abject poverty, what reason does the Government have to gloat and pat itself on the back? Madam, it is no surprise that India’s wealth inequality has reached obscene level with the top one per cent controlling over 40.5 per cent of the nation’s wealth and the 10 richest individuals in the country hold a combined fortune that is equivalent to 11.16 per cent of India’s GDP. While the bottom 50 per cent barely see any benefit despite this staggering concentration of wealth, India’s tax system remains regressive, where 64 per cent of GST comes from the bottom half of the population, while the top 10 per cent contribute a meagre 4 per cent. Madam, data from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence shows that frauds amounting to Rs. 2 lakh crore were detected in 2023-24, which is a significant increase from Rs. 1.1 lakh crore in the previous year. An estimated 2,30,000 small businesses have shut down due to complications arising from GST compliances. GST mismanagement is a glaring issue that the Government continuously fails to acknowledge and work on. Madam, the hon. Prime Minister Modi ji, in 2024 election campaign, said that ‘मवहलाओिं को मिंगलसूत्र बेचना पड़ेगा।‘ As per the RBI report in 2024-25, gold mortgage loans stood at Rs. 1.2 lakh crore, while in 2018-19 the gold mortgage loan was Rs. 25,000 crore. At the same time, NITI Aayog’s report claimed that out of all the women taking loans by mortgaging their belongings in 2024-25, 38 per cent were gold loans, which represent a 22 per cent increase compared to figures from 2019. It clearly shows that the middle-class and lower income group are undergoing a severe financial crisis. It is not news that the Indian rupee is consistently weakening against the US dollar. Our economic growth depends greatly upon trade as well as the import-export policies. But the Government has failed to provide any clear direction about how to strengthen our economy and the devaluing currency. … Madam, we cannot deny the fact that India’s investment climate has been deteriorating under the current Government, despite grand claims of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and ‘Make in India’. We are actually struggling to attract meaningful domestic and foreign investment. Private investment as a percentage of GDP is stagnant at around 27 per cent, significantly lower than the 32 per cent to 35 per cent during the previous decade. And if that is the case, how are we going to move forward from here? We are missing out the opportunity to become a global investment hub, and the current Government must take the responsibility for this failure. Madam, our economy is undergoing a severe crisis due to skyrocketing fuel prices, food inflation and the rising cost of living. While this Government has constantly blamed global factors for this problem, the real issues lie in poor economic management, regulatory burden, excessive taxation and the lack of proactive policy measures to control inflation. Ultimately, the burden of this falls on the middle class. …
