[Marxistindia] Budget 2019-20: An Election Jumla

[news from the cpi(m)]

01 February 2019

 

Press Statement

 

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the
following statement:

 

Budget 2019-20: An Election Jumla

 

The Modi government has now become famous for supressing and manipulating
data and offering jumlas to the people. The Interim Budget for 2019-20 is
yet another exercise in the same vein. The acting Finance Minister made tall
claims during his speech about the record of the Modi government and
promises of a rosy future for all Indians - which was a cruel joke played on
the suffering people of the country. 

 

The Budget presented before Parliament today cannot be the final budget for
this year because the government presenting it, and the Lok Sabha
considering it, will both cease to exist less than two months into the
financial year to which the budget pertains. The CPIM would like to point
out that the final picture of the measures for revenue mobilization and of
expenditure allocations for the financial year 2019-20 will take shape only
after the people of the country have spoken their mind through the elections
to the 17th Lok Sabha. It is a testimony to the BJP's fear and desperation
about what that verdict of the people might be that it has sought to use
what is an interim budget to make promises that are not for it to make. 

 

The figures available for April-November show that gross revenues from
Central taxes in 2018-19 increased by barely 7.1 per cent over the same
period in the previous year. However, the revised estimates for 2018-19 show
an estimated 17 per cent growth in revenues over actuals for 2017-18!  Even
after this, revenues are slotted to be Rs. 23,067 crores less than the
Budget Estimates announced a year ago. In a repeat of what it did last year,
the Government has put inflated revenue figures for both income tax as well
as GST revenues. Income tax revenues are destined to be at least Rs. 50,000
crores below the revised estimates. The Revised Estimates of Central GST
Revenues is already below the Budget Estimates by a whopping 1 lakh crores -
and the collection figures up to January 2018 indicate that even this is an
unrealistic figure. Clearly, the Government is manipulating the figures lest
the lies it has peddled about the consequences of demonetization and its tax
reform measures are caught out. Despite this revenue shortfall, the
government continues with the exemption of wealth tax introduced by the Modi
government in 2016. The rich people owning the second house are also tax
exempted. Clearly, the Modi government is cruelly following its logic of
squeezing the poor and enriching the rich further. 

 

Attack on State Governments

 

What is even more shocking is that the burden of lesser tax revenues is
being sought to be transferred to states. The net revenues of the Central
Government in 2018-19 have been kept at a slightly higher level than in the
Budget Estimates - a cut of Rs. 26, 639 crores is therefore being applied to
the state's share in Central Taxes. Similarly, the transfer to the GST
Compensation fund has been cut by Rs. 38,265 crores compared to the Budget
Estimates even though the GST revenue shortfall showing up in the Centre's
own budget would also be hitting State Government revenues. In other words,
it appears that the Union Government is shoring up its fiscal situation at
the expense of State Governments - so much for cooperative federalism.

 

Jumlas

 

Farmers: Despite the claim of making a new allocation of Rs, 20000 crores
for the income support scheme for farmers to implement it from 1 December
2018, the Revised Estimates of total expenditures for 2018-19 do not exceed
the Budget estimates by even that much. A curtailment of expenditure on
other heads, in particular the transfer to the GST Compensation fund, is
therefore where this allocation is coming from. Even this allocation and the
scheme is a fraud that is being played out - what else can one call a scheme
which promises a farmer household of 4 people an income 'support' of Rs. 4
per person per day? Having been directly responsible for aggravating
agrarian distress which has destroyed farmers' incomes by much more than
that, the Government is covering up for the betrayal of its promise of a MSP
one and a half times the production costs.  

 

The pension scheme: Pradhan Mantri Shram-Yogi Mandhan - is another such
jumla, promising a pension of a measly Rs. 3000 a month after 32 years of a
person contributing Rupees 100 every month - what does this say about what
is the economic status the Modi government expects the supposed
beneficiaries to have after more than three decades? And what does the
government have to commit itself to today for this great 'promise'? The
'royal' sum of Rs. 500 crores which in addition would not be received by the
beneficiary today but perhaps go to some insurance company or pension fund. 

 

Employment: The Acting Finance Minister while talking about the economy
situation avoided any mention of the NSSO data that would have caught out
the claim that the job seekers have become job creators leading to
significant growth of employment. Of course the employment seekers have to
become employment creators - not because government policies have enabled
them, but because these policies have dried up the jobs and people have to
find some way to survive. This budget has put an official stamp on "pakoda"
logic. 

 

The Union Budget for 2019-20 is therefore yet another reflection of the
bankruptcy of the Modi Government. No amount of spin can, however, remove
the distress that farmers feel or the poverty and joblessness people
actually experience.  This grim reality will assert itself in the 2019
electoral verdict.

 

  

 

 

 

 

(Hari Singh Kang)

For CPI(M) Central Committee Office

 

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