Budget being prepared to make crony capitalists richer: Cong targets govt

The Congress on Friday (July 19) hit out at the government claiming that the Union Budget is aimed at making a few crony capitalists richer rather than addressing concerns such as unemployment, rising inequalities and the "drying up" of FDI.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also alleged that this government has nothing to do with common people, farmers, youth, women and middle class, and claimed that the upcoming budget, like in the past years of the Modi government, is being prepared to build more monopolies in various sectors.

In the wake of the recent train accidents, she also asked what is being done to make the railways safer and will finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocate more funds which would in turn be used to protect people.

Real India

"On July 23, 2024, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her seventh budget. Before preparing this budget, she met some industrialists, bankers and farmer organisations and discussed issues with them but has she met the families who are unable to eat three meals a day? Has she met the women who are struggling with inflation? Has she met the farmers who are struggling to get fair prices for their crops? Has she met the youth who are suffering due to paper leaks? Has she met the real India?" Shrinate asked.

"It is clear that she has not met them. This budget is being prepared to make a few crony capitalists richer," she said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.

Displaying slides with economic data at the presser, Shrinate said the foreign direct investment (FDI) is drying up and India has traded deficit with nine of the top 10 trading partners.

She claimed that monopolies have been increasing in sectors such as cement, telecom, aviation and tyres, and said this budget will see more monopolies being built.

Citing a farmer's suicide, Shrinate said finance minister Sitharaman or Prime Minister Narendra Modi do not know anything about them, hence the budget has not been made for them.

"Local Circles report states that 48 per cent of the country's families are facing financial crisis. People's income has decreased and they are living their lives with the help of savings," she said.

Shrinate said the crumbling railings in Gujarat with job-seekers at a hotel and the lakhs of people flocking to Mumbai for aviation jobs exposes the false arguments of this government on unemployment.

Economic inequality

"Due to economic mismanagement and policies such as demonetisation, half-baked GST and inefficient Covid management, the economy suffered a loss of Rs 11.5 lakh crore. More than 1.5 crore jobs were lost in the country," she claimed.

Shrinate said the share of contract and contractual workers increased from 19 per cent in 2013 to 43 per cent in 2022.

"But Narendra Modi is saying that he has given 8 crore jobs. Where are these jobs?" she asked.

The rate of economic inequality in the country is today worse than during the British Raj, Shrinate claimed and said that one per cent of the population of this nation controls 40 per cent of the country's wealth due to which the rich are becoming richer, the poor, poorer.

"Will this budget do anything to bridge this gap?" she asked.

Inflation

Shrinate said food inflation has remained consistently above 9% and the vegetable prices have increased by more than 30%.

"It may not matter to the rich, but you (government) have made the vegetables disappear from the plate of the poor. This inflation is everywhere, be it transport, school fees or clothes etc. So the question is: will this budget be able to stop inflation?" she asked.

Noting that consumption accounts for 60 per cent of our economy, Shrinate said the data shows that despite price cuts, fast-moving consumer goods sales have halved in April and May.

"Vehicles worth Rs 60,000 crores are lying unsold. The situation of inflation is such that even those who want to buy a car are not able to do so," the Congress leader said.

She said there is a culture of savings in India and this culture has kept our economy strong but today "we are suffering so much from unemployment, inflation and low income that the domestic debt, which never went above 25 per cent of GDP, is close to 41 per cent today".

Household debt has risen to 41 per cent of the GDP, causing household savings to fall to less than 6 per cent of the GDP, she said.

"Talking about petrol and diesel, five big companies saved about 900 billion rupees by buying cheap oil from Russia. But did petrol and diesel become cheaper for the public?" she asked.

Shrinate also pointed out that the growth rate of agriculture in the financial year 2024 was 1.4% as against 4.7% in the previous financial year.

The Modi government has continuously reduced the budget of the agriculture sector, where most of our people work, she said.

Trade deficit

The Congress leader further said the investment in the country is "completely sluggish", while the investment during the UPA government was 30 per cent of the GDP, today it is at 20-25 per cent.

"We have a trade deficit with nine out of the top 10 trading partners of India. We are importing more from them and exporting less to them. That means we are buying more goods from them but selling less to them," Shrinate said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to present the Union Budget on July 23.