New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Dr Amit Mitra, Principal Chief Advisor to the Chief Minister and Finance Department of West Bengal, criticised the Union Budget on Saturday, saying it was “a disaster for the common people”.
Claiming that there is nothing for the common people in this budget, he told IANS, “It (Union Budget) has cut everything. Social services were cut by 16 per cent. Housing cut by 4.38 per cent. Welfare and scheduled cast and scheduled tribes were cut by over 3 per cent. Social services and welfare, very important for the common people, were cut by 5 per cent. Now what is interesting is that even food subsidy had been cut by 1 per cent.”
“And there’s nothing for the youth, women or farmers. Unemployment as you know, youth unemployment today is 46 per cent. Among them, 30 per cent are unemployed who are graduates. According to CMIE, as much as 37,000,000 people were unemployed between October and December,” the Principal Chief Advisor to the CM claimed.
On 100 per cent FDI allowed in insurance, Mitra said, “It is a challenge to all the public sector companies like LIC and a host of other insurance companies and including Indian private sector companies. Now while they are coming in, they’ll come in with a 100 per cent equity. When our state asks for GST on insurance, including life insurance, to be reduced from 18 per cent goods and services tax to 0 because it’s only punishing people who are taking insurance. The central government did not allow it. It postponed it. That leads me to the question. Is there some kind of a conspiratorial process here that foreign direct investors come in 100 per cent equity, but the GST remains at 18 per cent for insurance for the common people? Who benefits from this?”
Commenting on the manufacturing sector, he stated the survey has directly said the growth rate has been cut.
“Manufacturing is only 15 per cent of our GDP. And the promise was to take it to 25 per cent. What is there in the budget which is gonna take manufacturing to that 25 per cent target of Mr Modi? So how will you get higher growth? Naturally, growth is tumbling and conservative in its expectations. So what has the budget done for the common people? It has consistently cut,” Mitra stated.
Commenting on the new tax exemption limit announced in the budget, the Principal Chief Advisor to the West Bengal Chief Minister said, “Taxes from 7 lakh threshold have been raised to 12 lakh. So the income of 12 lakh level will not pay taxes, but remember inflation is rising and there is nothing in the budget to control inflation.”
Explaining the new tax exemption limit, he said, “Only 8 crore people pay taxes. Even if some proportion of those people gain a little bit, it’ll get eaten up automatically by inflation. That means your real gain is 0. This is the kind of very clever trick that the budget plays.”
Slamming the budget, he said, “What has it done for inflation? In fact, to keep the fiscal deficit at 4.4 per cent central government is again going to borrow almost Rs 15 lakh crore. So the debt of the country will keep going. So my conclusion, is nothing for the common people, nothing for the youth, only unemployment. Nothing for women of any significance, only words. Nothing for the farmers accepting some homilies.”
Mitra also alleged that there was a deep-rooted conspiracy indicated by a lot of experts on Saturday.
“Inviting 100 per cent equity of foreign direct investment insurance, but not cutting the GST tax on insurance, does it have a connection between the two? In this government between somebody or the other, an international lobby?” he questioned.
–IANS
uk/
