February 9, 2022
Pratima Mondal speaks on omissions in Budget presentation
Full Transcript
Madam, I rise to speak on the Union Budget 2022-23.
Since the Finance Minister is here and there is a paucity of time, I am coming directly to the points and I would like to take the opportunity to ask a couple of questions to the Hon’ble Finance Minister and I would be happy if she addressed my questions in her Budget reply.
Madam, firstly, delving into the food security scenario, the total food subsidy budget is Rs 2.1 lakh crore. This is significantly lower than Rs 2.9 lakh crore which will go towards food subsidy as per the revised estimate for 2021-22. The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana might possibly be coming to an end in March. The government needs to compensate the Food Corporation of India for giving away food grains for free. And if it has not budgeted for it, how will it compensate for it?
Secondly, changes in the Income Tax and rates, hike in standard deductions, hike in basic exemption limit, work from home tax benefits – these were the many expectations by the common man from the Budget of 2022. But once again, the common man has not got anything and has been disappointed. A large part of the Budget speech revolves around only the Gati Shakti scheme, making no beneficial direct relief which people were looking forward to.
Thirdly, just a 4 per cent increase in weakness compared to 6 per cent increase in allocation for police and this year with no real increase in defence expenditure, does this mean external security is less important than internal security? Also the government has decided that the demand for subsidised urban housing is either not needed or not a priority, obviously overlooking the slums in major cities.
Fourthly, the most crucial, why hasn’t the health sector been given the push that it has deserved. There has been no clear policy on vaccination compared to the revised estimate of last financial year. There has been a massive 45.2 per cent decline in the allocation for medical and public health. Even after the heart-wrenching visuals of dead bodies floating in the rivers and series of unending pyres being lit, the government is still ignorant.
Ma’am, I have two demands: my constituency Jaynagar is absolutely coastal and rural based in Sundarbans. A noticeable part falls in my Parliamentary Constituency. Ma’am, there is no Kendriya Vidyalaya. So it is my demand that if you kindly look into this, I will be grateful for this. And one more thing ma’am, we are now getting only Rs 2 crore as MPLAD funds. It would benefit all the MPs if you could increase this.
Thank you so much Ma’am. With this I am concluding my speech.
