BENGALURU: India’s economy is facing a major crisis, there is nothing in the budget that will bring the economy out of this free fall, said Congress Rajya Sabha member Prof MV Rajeev Gowda. Gowda said there is nothing significant in the budget to revive investments, consumption, create jobs, promote export and boost rural sector.
“Basically, it (budget) has lots of little details, but all these measures do not add up to much. It is hard to believe the government’s numbers, especially when the Finance Minister says farmers’ income will be doubled by 2022,” Gowda said.
On the number of announcements made related to the agriculture sector, the Congress leader said one needs to look at the implementation of such announcements over the years. Many of these measures were suggested in previous budgets and many of them were not implemented in the manner they should have been. Even for existing programmes like MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), they have not released money, and if they do, rural consumers who are already suffering, will be hurt more, he added.
Gowda welcomed the suburban rail announcement. “I welcome any support for the suburban rail project. It is an issue I have been promoting from a long time, but I think we have to look at the details. I think they will ask the Railways to monetize its land holdings, and the money they have promised is not going to come from the central exchequer in a direct way,” he added.