New Delhi

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, Shri Ahmed Patel today in a statement criticized the annual budget presented in parliament by Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley today. Following is the statement of Shri Ahmed Patel:

Budget 2016-17 has been presented in the midst of an intense economic gloom. But rather than providing hope the budget raises more concerns – particularly on the government’s ability to bring back the economy’s animal spirits. After their defeat in Bihar, the NDA government wants to create an image of being pro poor and pro farmers, but their words and actions are clearly conflicting. Reading of their budget document shows that they haven’t able to meet expenditure under agriculture and social sector heads. This budget will not solve the problem of our farmers, is silent on decline in exports and job creation, has neglected our security concerns and goes against the interest of Adviasis and Dalits.
The challenge before the economy is not political obstruction – as mentioned in the budget speech – but imagination of governance. After accusing us of failure for 60 years the enthusiasm with which they have adopted our schemes in this budget is laughable.

The main concerns with this budget are as follows:

-The budget pictures an attempt to be pro farmer, but in reality this is misleading.. While insurance is a welcome step, it cannot be a substitute for capital expenditure. Today the most pressing problem confronting our farmers is falling MSP’s and acute drought. The budget is silent on both these accounts. While the government could announce a bailout for Bank NPA’s what prevented it from announcing a bailout for drought hit farmers? Instead they have reduced subsidy on fertilizer by Rs 2000 cr. When in Gujarat they couldn’t achieve 100% coverage of Soil Health Card how will they achieve it nationwide? By shifting the goalpost for doubling farm income from 2019 to 2022 is by itself an implicit admit of failure on the government’s policies. Their idea to increase farmer income without raising MSP is like expecting a patient to recover without medicines.

-The budget has even disappointed the middle class and salaried citizens, who had vehemently voted for this government in 2014. They have raised virtually every form of indirect and non discriminatory taxation such excise and imposed new cess, notwithstanding the fact they huge revenue already accrued to fall in crude oil prices rather than improving direct taxes. Not to mention the withdrawal tax on hard earned Provident Fund savings defies any logic.

-This budget betrays the aspirations of our Adivasi and Dalit brothers and sisters. There has been a massive decline in plan expenditure of the Tribal Affairs Ministry. Worse, the SC and ST sub plan on plan expenditure has been reduced to 7% and 4.4% from 16% and 8.6% respectively. This confirms our fear that this government is against the down trodden.

-The Economic Survey spoke in great detail on the importance of education and health, but the budget has slashed allocation for ICDS and school education. This is counterproductive for states like states like Gujarat which suffer from malnutrition and poor learning outcomes.

-The budget makes it amply clear that we will not benefit from low oil prices. The budget has allocated a meagre Rs 8,500 cr to electrify villages. In an era of low oil prices the budget is silent on filling up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. All fuel importing nations maintain an SPR of at least 45 days whereas developed nations maintain a 90 days’s stock. Low oil prices provide a golden opportunity to stockpile crude/products. It is disappointing that the government does not deem it necessary to utilize this golden opportunity to build a stockpile for India.

-Finally the reduced allocations in capital expenditure for defence, external affairs and home aren’t in the best interest for our nation.

– DeshGujarat