February 8, 2022
Jawhar Sircar speaks during the General Discussion on the Union Budget for 2022-23
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Honourable Chair, Hon’ble Members, it is my proud privilege to be following the Budget debate after an Honourable ex-Prime Minister of India. One was getting fidgety but one has to admit that if a current Prime Minister can get an indefinite amount of time to speak, the former Prime Ministers also deserve that amount of respect. After all, everyone will become a former Prime Minister. When I look at Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr Deve Gowda, I am reminded of the grace that is necessary for the Chair of the Prime Minister. Be that as it may, I tried to analyse the Budget because it was my job for a large part in my 40 years of service, to prepare Budgets and to understand them. There are hidden codes written by bureaucrats within the Budget.
Now, having said that, this Budget defies certain analysis. I wish I could describe it as insipid, tasteless, directionless but I would be failing in my duties if I did not point out to the nation that this Budget also carries the seed of the perpetuation of inequality in a manner of which we have hardly ever seen before. It institutionalises the difference between classes in India. Just for figures, you are taking it up to Rs 39.45 lakh crore. It is a record increase but on the resource front, we find that receipts other than borrowings are in the range of Rs 24 lakh crore. Now that is where the catch starts from; I will explain as I go along.
From the Central tax revenue, you are keeping Rs 19 lakh crore for yourself and giving the States Rs 8 lakh crore. This is not the place to discuss State-Centre devolution but at some point of time we must get together on this and change the basic structure. We cannot go on, on an inequitable structure.
The only bad news is the good news. That is, on disinvestment, you are failing miserably. First of all, nobody gave you the right to sell off assets the nation created for 70 years, that much-vaunted 70 years. But you have failed in that also. There is inefficiency in this also. Your budget [for this] was Rs 1.7 lakh crore, you are doing [disinvestments worth] Rs 75 lakh crore, Rs 1 lakh crore shortage even in that. It impacts on the budget. You had launched a National Monetisation Pipeline with a lot of fanfare and aggression, but out of the [proposed] Rs 88,000 crore, you will hardly get Rs 8,000 crore. So these impact the budget. Nobody authorised you to sell off but then there are two major worries, and I express this on behalf of the All India Trinamool Congress and on behalf of many right-thinking persons.
One is on the fiscal deficit, about which Mr Chidambaram spoke before me, and on fiscal deficit he mentioned the figure of 6.9 per cent fiscal deficit. It is extraordinarily high and it impacts on India’s image before foreign investors, about whom you keep talking about. It is 6.9, you will try to bring it to 6.4 this year [as per the budget]—I doubt it.
Now, there is an interesting part as to how the receipts of the government come at the moment. And this is just for refreshing. Corporate income tax or corporation tax gives us Rs 7.2 lakh crore. Income tax, with all the machinery and all the officers and all the powers, gives us Rs 7 lakh crore, personal income tax, that is. GST, the Central part, is Rs 7.8 lakh crore and cess, that was taken up to rocketing high levels, mainly on petrol, gives us less than Rs 4 lakh crore. Let us remember that the taxes are between Rs 7 and 8 lakh crore from the three major verticals of taxation.
Number one, I shall bring forward two points here. One is about the fiscal deficit, which I have already mentioned, and immediately following that is the point on borrowing. The borrowings are extremely dangerous for any nation. Your borrowings have increased by 130 per cent—130 per cent is the burden of borrowings since you came to power. You inherited an outstanding liability of 50 per cent of the GDP, that is what the other regime gave you, but you have taken that to 61 per cent of the GDP. For God’s sake, how will you pay back? Who will pay back? Which generation will pay back these amounts? Forty-three per cent of all that we earn or gather goes on the servicing of interest. That means, if I borrow or take Rs 100, I have to give back Rs 43 for my past suits, if I may.
Individual allocations of the Budget I will not get into. But among individual allocations, one thing that attracts my attention is the budget on Housing and Urban Affairs. It has shot up from Rs 54,000 crore last year to Rs 74,000 crore within the year. You know where that money went. Rs 20,000 crore went to the pandering of the gigantic ego in tinkering around with the Central Vista and other projects, including the ones that we have. This money could have gone for more proper roads. This Central Vista can only come if we destroy all national institutions—the National Museum, the National Archives, the National Centre for the Arts will all have to be destroyed so that Rs 20,000 crore can be spent, and [about] the issue of building the visual representations that I have seen, they represent the most mediocre form of aesthetics, if at all it can be called aesthetic. I have seen the visuals, they are obviously selected by someone.
You are now borrowing Rs 5 lakh crore a year from small savings. You are frightening me, you are frightening the middle class. Will you be able to pay back or will I stop investing in small savings? You have to tell me that.
Then the second worry is from the obscenity of richness which has taken over India. I am using the word ‘obscenity of richness’. One hundred forty-two billionaires, Mr Chidambaram spoke before me, 142 billionaires, not 143, have increased their wealth under this regime in seven-and-a-half years. From Rs 22 lakh crore, [which is] three times of what you pay as income tax every year, from Rs 22 lakh crore to not 42 lakh crore, it has gone up to Rs 53 lakh crore. The cornering of wealth can only happen in a collusive legal order.
One interesting news that has come out today itself in Bloomberg, and it came out four days ago in Forbes, these are the ones that keep track of the rich, they say that somebody’s wealth—somebody who flew in the Prime Minister to take oath—somebody’s wealth has gone up from Rs 42,000 crore when he brought him in that flight to Rs 6.7 lakh crore. I think this is the highest rate of investment any businessman could do. I would not like to name anyone, but it’s Mr Adani, everybody knows. I am quoting from the Forbes report and the Bloomberg report. They say it is in the range of Rs 6.8 lakh crore from Rs 42,000 crore. A stupendous rate, that is why I’ve used the phrase “obscenity of wealt”’, that again and again manifests itself in crazy tall buildings and all other luxuries. The top 100 corporate heads in India have jacked up their wealth from Rs 35 lakh crore by 30 per cent increase in seven years. Can’t part of it be skimmed off? Can’t part of them be forced to part with a part of it for the welfare of the nation that is being pushed back and back and back? When trains are burnt in Bihar and UP over recruitment, take that as an early sign, don’t take it as law and order. Remember India is burning within. Internal manifestations will burst out through similar incidents if you don’t take caution. I have seen the the breakout of the Naxalite Movement during my college years.
Wealth tax that Mr Chidambaram suggested, wealth tax should have been imposed last year and this year. Why aren’t you imposing wealth tax? Without wealth tax you cannot appropriate a part of the profits that you have facilitated through the system. You can’t do it.
The thing that hits our eye is a slash in social sector spending. The social sector is being devastated by this insipid Budget. Food subsidy has been slashed by Rs 80,000 crore. Who authorised you to take away food from the mouths of the poor? The Prime Minister mentioned about food that “I have reached food to 85,000 crore Indians”. Eighty-five crore Indians among 130 crore Indians, actually it is 135 crores. Out of the 135 crore Indians, 85 crore Indians have received free food. Don’t you realise you are making an admission and affidavit before this House that 85 crore Indians out of 135 are so poor that they line up for free food, that that is the real poor? Not the statistics that you mention but that is the real poor. That is the best affidavit I heard today. On rural development, you are slashing it by Rs 15,000 crore, health by Rs 86,000 crore. India’s investment in health is just 1.25 per cent of the GDP, one of the lowest in the world. We have gone through this trauma where you talk of doing this and that and the health budget is not going up substantially. Bhutan, Nepal and others are about 5 per cent. There countries of the world, go and check out the figures.
We have such a past that 10 crore Indians are on this very nervous unstable slot. One illness can push them into poverty. It requires one illness to destroy a family. You have to understand that when you facilitate the growth of wealth to such obscene levels, please remember that there are 10-15 crore Indians who fall back into poverty because our support systems were not good enough.
Education, again Rs 88,000 crore. Is this something worth talking about? Under Mr Modi—this is the time I am mentioning his name—under Mr. Modi, the greatest credit is that education as a percentage of GDP has come down to below 1. Below 1! Below 1 per cent of the GDP is spent on education. Less that 1 per cent. I am talking about the Central component of the education. 3.5 per cent is being contributed by poor States, about whom I talked about on devolution.
Food subsidy, I have mentioned, is down by Rs 87,000 crore. NREGA, the great 100 Days Work scheme. Our Chief Minister mentioned just yesterday that we in West Bengal need 8,000 crore man-days extra. What devastation has been done in this Budget. From Rs 1.11 lakh crore, which everybody knows is insufficient—and the stipulation, and the calculation was that we should take it to Rs 2.5 lakh crore this year—you have brought it down to Rs 73,000 crore. Whom are you walking? You have cut down NREGA, this life-soul of the poor, you are cutting down food subsidy, and I have given you descriptions of wealth. This is an anti-people budget, and my party has said that, along with many other parties, all the time. We need eight crore man-days more, in any case, but with Rs 73,000 crore, what will you do? The pending bills are Rs 22,000 crore. So, it will not be able to carry on.
Okay, unemployment. Labour participation rate is at 40 per cent, one of the lowest in the world. And you talk about so many people coming under ePFO and others. These are manufactured figures. These are structural figures. Don’t fall for them and don’t believe, don’t fool yourself into a make-believe life. Don’t delude yourself and take yourself to a fairyland, where everything is all right. All is well. All is well. It’s just not possible.
Urban employment, rural employment are touching around 14 per cent. Every year, we are getting 48 lakh joining the workforce, and so far, we have been enabled to provide only 12 lakh, 48 we are getting, 48 lakh joining the workforce, and we have been able to provide jobs for only 12 lakh. Where will the remaining 36 lakhs go? You want Bihar train fires again?
Now, coming to the unkindest cut of all, women and child. Children are our future. Children’s supplemental nutrition was Rs 8.3 crore when you came to power. Now, it is 6.7 crore. A 24 per cent slash on the nutrition that goes into the mouths and stomachs of babies. For pre-school education for children, in the last five years, [allocation] has come down from Rs 3.4 crore to Rs 2.3 crore. And you talk about education. You talk about national education, New Education Policy, you give fancy slides. Get out of this charmed world of presenters and marketers. Anganwadi workers are about 26 lakh, and they get a miserable salary. They are the cutting-edge of this government with the people. The cutting-edge, the ones who serve. Anganwadi workers get a pittance. Their salary is around Rs 10 to 12,000. Cooks and helpers, who are there for the mid-day meals, get Rs 1,000 salary. Some 26 lakhs of them. Please look at these. Mr Prime Minister, Mrs Finance Minister, this is not a criticism, this is a humble request from our side, and from our party’s side. We want to look at what to do with women and children. Come to my State, come to my State, we don’t talk about Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and all that. We have Kanyashree, under which lakhs and crores of disadvantaged women are riding to school every day. That cycle holds two wings, those two wings of empowerment. They are not just mechanical.
The National Child Labour Programme, which was to save children from the clutches of exploitation, you have cut down from Rs 120 crore to Rs 30 crore. What is this? Where is the 90 crore going to go? Then, to repeat the points relating to the anti-people Budget, I will just touch upon the fact that the jute industries are natural allies to the statements you have made in Glasgow, to the commitments you have made in Glasgow, and the jute industry, the jute farmers and others, my colleague Dola Sen will also speak about it. I am only touching on the point, that you are tinkering around. You have declared an imaginary price of Rs 6,500 per quintal; 50,000 workers have been laid off. Please pay attention to it, use jute for geo-fibre, for other things. it is a biodegradable fibre. On the other hand you are supporting petroleum and plastics on which some friend of yours has a monopoly.
Judiciary. When we talk of the judicial system—that’s another place where the we all have to go—the judicial system is on the verge of breakdown. Thirty-five per cent of the high court judge posts are lying vacant; it should have gone up by at least 50 per cent. Sixty thousand cases are pending. The distribution—4.10 lakh cases. What are we doing about it? Judiciary is hardly ever discussed in finance matters, and therefore, I took up this point to say that that is one point where we go for justice.
You talk of capex, as if it’s a great thing. We have all dealt with it. The capex you are intervening this year because the tax that you let off to the corporate sector, which amounts to Rs 1.7 lakh crores—I’m repeating it, you have given the corporate sector undue tax benefits of Rs 1.7 lakh crore and they were supposed to give you capex investments and jobs, but they did nothing. They have gone in for personal enrichment, of the type that I have just mentioned Now you are talking. Because the private sector is a laggard, the government has been forced to come in.
LIC I’ve spoken about before. Rs 38 to 40 lakh crore. Where is your investment into LIC, what have you ever given to LIC? LIC is a super-efficient machinery that has been built on its own steel, and you are wanting to dilute LIC in the interest of foreign insurers, that’s all.
MSME—I’m sentimental about it because I was the first development commissioner of MSMEs way back in 2007 and I have kept track of it. So don’t comment and tell me that MSME is thriving, that MSME is glorious. MSME has gone through problems and the small entrepreneur knows how to tackle problems, but he doesn’t know how to tackle problems that are artificially thrust on him, like demonetisation. You have shattered the MSME, the small and village industries, by demonetisation and you have gained nothing from it. And now you are coming and saying that MSME hamare. What are the reasons could be, that those small traders who used to be the spinal cord of support of a particular political party, are not required anymore? Because big capital has come in through one route and we don’t require small capital. It’s an insult.
You are talking of start-ups! Unicorn, unicorn, unicorn! Unicorn is that deer with the long horn, a mythical beast. You are talking about myths? 81 unicorns, that means people who get 1 billion [dollars]. What is a start-up? Very simple. Look at Uber, Ola. With what we started and now what has happened? You look at the drivers who drive Uber, Ola. Look at the sales delivery workers, the gig workers, who come and deliver food to you, like Swiggy. Don’t you feel pity at the level of the exploitation? The entire wealth of start-ups are built on an exploitative system that takes away surplus value from them. You have to realise these things. Mr Prime Minister, Mrs Finance Minister, please realise that you are playing with fire to serve the interests of a handful, just a handful. This is the level of exploitation. We have to bring up an Act.
I know that you have passed the big workers’ Act as part of the four Labour Codes. Nobody has even seen those properly, nobody has even discussed it properly. Do not behave like you behaved with the Farm Laws and land up with an explosion that you can’t control. You mentioned that the Punjab agriculturalists are getting pleased but you forgot to mention that the Punjab agriculturalists were at the door, UP agriculturalists were at the door of Delhi for one full year. So don’t fool around with these dangers, don’t play around with fire. Your emphasis on start-ups and unicorns—that is, start-ups that have got a first-class first degree, that’s all—is completely misplaced. Please give them support but also ensure social equity. The economics of my State, that has yielded good results to the government, is based on social equity, women’s participation, scheduled castes and tribes; it is based on faith in the Muslim community, also.
We have to understand that if you play around with these figures, you are playing around with fire. They are not figures that are typed out in an Excel sheet and put into our Budget. Please extract each figure, ask the question of ‘why’. Who does it benefit and what is the alternate way of expending the money or realising the money—you have to go in for a Budget.
Seven years to eight years you have carried on in this manner, but the time is ticking on. I started by mentioning that the two ex-Prime Ministers are full of grace, which all the Members in the House will agree with. I only hope somebody else emerges full of grace at some other point in time. But right now, if you don’t want to hasten that time, there is time to correct—go in for mid-term corrections.
With these words, I oppose the Budget submissions. Thank you.
