‘Anti-people’ budget, says Jayalalithaa
CM J. Jayalalithaa said Friday the Union budget failed to address grave concerns afflicting the Indian economy and demonstrated the “continued policy paralysis” gripping the UPA government.
It had no proposals for containing fiscal deficit that could lead to higher inflation, nor did it offer a solution to the slowing economic growth, she said.
CM said the budget “is an exercise in futility, an ill-wind that blows nobody any good and to top it all, anti-people” as it offered no concrete proposals to back the UPA government’s professed commitment to improving the economy.
Recalling that the economic survey presented in Parliament Thursday pegged growth at 6.9% as against 8.4% seen in the preceding two years, she said even the modest 7.6% growth projected for the coming year would be difficult to achieve because the budget did not provide a real stimulus for growth.
“The propensity for high savings by Indians has not been used for investment in productive assets by appropriate policy measures,” CM said, regretting that the budget “thus lost an opportunity to help capital formation”.
Chief minister Ms J. Jayalalithaa on Friday slammed the Central budget as being “anti-people and an exercise in futility.”
“The budget presented in the parliament is a poor reflection of the commitment of the Central government to take the economy forward on a growth trajectory. This budget is an exercise in futility, ‘an ill-wind that blows nobody any good’ and to top it all, anti-people,” Ms Jayalalithaa said, in a strong indictment of the Union budget.
The chief minister said the budget only demonstrated the “continued policy paralysis” gripping the government and did not provide any tangible solutions to the problems crippling the Indian economy.
The marginal concessions to the middle class income tax payers hardly compensated the run-away inflation, she said, adding nothing tangible had been done to bring back the black money stashed in foreign countries. “The finance minister has insulted the common people by stating that the fiscal deficit would be reduced by a reduction in the subsidies, which are essential for the common people”, Ms Jayalalithaa said.
The introduction of “Rajiv Gandhi equity savings scheme” to provide tax relief to retail investors up to ` 50,000 was uncalled for. Also, the (18%) increase in funds allocation for agriculture would not be adequate to get the expected four percent growth in the sector. Bringing more items under the service tax fold and enhancing it to 12 per cent would only stoke inflation, she said.
She regretted that the budget lacked focus on infrastructure; neither did it contain any announcement to enable the states to directly raise resources to implement infrastructure projects.
The finance minister had estimated that half of the Rs.50 lakh crores of investment during the 12th Plan period would come from the private sector but his budget had no “rational forward-looking policy” for private investment and public-private partnership for infrastructure growth, she pointed out.
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