The ruling BJP maintained there has been a significant and manifold increase in the allocation of funds for various projects which are also nearing completion due to strict monitoring by the prime minister himself.
Participating in the debate, Sukhendu Shekhar Roy (TMC) quoted philosopher Chaarvaak who said always stay happy and take loans if needed to consume ghee. “To me the functionaries of the government look like Chaarvaka as it appears the total government loan, including external debt, is estimated at Rs 200.53 Lakh Crore which signifies the Amrit Kaal,” he said.
Among the issues flagged by him are no change in income tax slab in the budget, allowing 100% FDI in the insurance sector which endangers the livelihood of those employed in public sector insurance like LIC.
“A tax holiday has been announced till 2047 to foreign companies in selected sectors,” he said, adding that the government has repealed 1562 laws and sought an explanation on why this was done. HE alleged that many laws have been diluted to allow monetary fines for offences.
Roy said committees and commissions mean obituaries of a plan. He said some plans envisaged by Mamata Banerjee during her tenure as Railway Minister have still not seen the light of day. Other public infrastructure projects have met the same bottlenecks.
Three Kartavyas listed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.Disparity in income with a selected few getting all the benefits. Top 10 % control 65% of the country’s wealth. He also alleged that the Insolvency rules are being misused. He cautioned that if requisite steps are not taken India will go the way some of its neighboring countries have over the years.
Surendra Singh Nagar (BJP) said the budget is inspired by three “kartavyas”- increasing productivity through mutual competition; tapping the capabilities of citizens and becoming self-reliant; and participation of all segments of society.
He praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for starting the PRAGATI portal to monitor around 3300 pending government projects before 2014 which has led to monitoring of work to the tune of Rs 85 Lakh Crore. “This has resulted in completion of long pending works like Jammu and Kashmir rail project and Assam bridge project,” he said.
Nagar also thanked the government for fixing MSP of 24 crops in Haryana.
“As far as GDP growth is concerned, World Bank and other international organisations accept that India’s growth rate is likely to be around 7.2% which is the highest among the big economies in the world,” Nagar said.
The BJP leader said there has been an increase of 148% in the power sector budget, 982% in railway budget and 541% in the agriculture budget in the last decade. He further emphasized that the defence budget has seen an increase of 210% since 2014.
Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD) underlined that the budget should be constitutionally mandated under Article 39 (equitable distribution of wealth envisaged under the Directive Principles of State Policy) of the Constitution. He said there are contradictions in this government as seen in the big claims of high growth while there is high unemployment and inequality in income.
“A budget is not just an economic document but also a moral document and we have finished it by converting it into merely an economic document. Even today unemployment is the most serious problem facing the country. The prime minister and others have talked often about the youth dividend but it is getting changed into a liability and the government has no roadmap,” he said.
The government is giving many shocks without any shock-absorbers. To deal with these problems the government resorts to polarization. Every attempt at polarization works on covering basic problems, he lamented.
Jha said that while the wealth at the top is increasing, it is getting reduced at the bottom.
