February 9, 2022
Saugata Roy speaks during the General Discussion on the Union Budget for 2022-23
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Sir, I have very little time. So, Madam Finance Minister, can I have your attention? I will speak for only five minutes. Madam, I invite your attention to paras 63 and 64 of your Budget Speech. You have spoken about ease of doing business. Are you aware that the ease of doing business has been discarded by the World Bank last year? Is it your ignorance? I am reading from the report of the World Bank. It says: “After reviewing all the information available to date on Doing Business, including the findings of past reviews, audits, and the report the Bank released today on behalf of the Board of Executive Directors, World Bank Group management has taken the decision to discontinue the Doing Business report.” It is of September 16, 2021. You, as our Finance Minister, were not aware that the World Bank has given up? You should cut out these lines, these words ‘doing business’. Chairman Sir, on 24th September, 2021, Kaushik Basu said that the Bank announced that it would discontinue the report after an independent investigation by the law firm WilmerHale revealed the Bank’s sordid efforts, starting in 2017 to manipulate data in order to improve China and Saudi Arabia’s DB rankings. The Bank had suspended publication of the Index last year. Secondly, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Finance Minister has talked about increasing CapEx, Capital Expenditure. She wants to pump prime the public investment in order that she can bring in private investment. That is their policy. The Government spends money to build Air India. The Government sells it to Tatas for Rs. 18,000 crore only. This will go on. Even the Government will pump in money to build airports. They will be sold to Adanis. So, pump priming investment means the Government will spend money, the private sector and the favoured ones will get it. The Government will build a port, Adanis will buy it up. This is your idea of private investment. About this CapEx, she says that Rs. 7.5 lakh crore will be given as capital expenditure. But if you look at the figures, you will see that only the central sector schemes/projects of Rs. 5.58 lakh crore really qualify as capital expenditure for infrastructure and other development purposes. In this, only road transport and highways, and housing are the development and employment generating items totalling only Rs. 2.14 lakh crore. So, the total CapEx projected compared to corresponding figure last year is Rs. 4.76 lakh crore. That means it has gone down by 17 per cent. Sir, I will complete. I will be very, very brief. Lastly, I say that of all the Budgets presented by Mrs. Sitharaman so far, this is the best. She has given a Budget in a very difficult pandemic time. I acknowledge that. The economy is just coming back to pre-pandemic levels. Agriculture is at same level; industry and service sectors have come back to that level; but tourism, travel, and trade have received the maximum heat. The Finance Minister has not promised anything for these employment generating areas. And what I asked her earlier, she refused to reply to me. Your fiscal deficit is 6.9 per cent. Your wholesale expenditure has reached double digits. Inflation is there. That is why the common man is feeling the pinch. Sir, in one minute I will finish. The number of poor people in the country have doubled. It has reached 134 million. So, this Budget is actually a cruel budget against the poor. The food subsidy has been reduced by 28 per cent. Money allocation of MGNREGA has been reduced. That is the only employment generation programme. It has been reduced. Sir, I am ending my speech. We are concerned about these matters, that is why, I am seeking your indulgence. We wanted the Finance Minister repeatedly to give some cash support to the poor. This has been advocated by Shri Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, the Nobel laureate. The Finance Minister refused to give the cash support to the poor. So, the poor are poorer and that is the condition. Please allow me to speak the last sentence. Let me not have to act like some other Members have. Lastly, I want to say this. The IT Minister is sitting next to the Finance Minister. They are talking of digital India. When they talk of these big things, I remember the pictures of migrant labourers walking on the highways after the lockdown, sleeping on the highways, being run over by trains, and not having food to eat. I think that is the progress. We have dealt with our human beings like cattle. The poor have become poorer. Tagore wrote a long time back: *Jare tumi niche felo she tomare bandhiche je niche Those whom you are putting down, they will pull you towards it. *Hey more durbhaga desh, jahader korecho apoman Oh, my unfortunate country, those whom you have insulted *apomane hote habe tahader sabar soman In the insult, you will have to be equal to all of them. I end my speech on the Budget, and I hope that the Finance Minister will correct ease of doing business
