The finance minister’s claim that no one went hungry during Covid19 is misleading, if not downright false. According to the World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022, 56 million of the 70 million people (80% ) thrown into poverty in 2020 were in India.
What is more worrying is the immediate future of marginalised groups, including women, as the budget for the MGNREGS is further squeezed by nearly 33%. There was very little in the budget for the poor, many of whom are from socially oppressed groups, such as scheduled castes and tribes, and small and medium farmers.
The government’s own reports indicate that an Indian peasant earns only Rs 27 per day, much lower than the poverty line of USD 2.15 per day. Any proposal to help farmers get out of vulnerability is missing from the budget.
A proposed farm credit programme is simply an expansion of the current one, which is woefully inadequate.
In comparison with the enormous disparity in human capital in India across states, the number of nursing colleges and Skill India centres announced is quite small.
The assistance to MSMEs is insufficient given that manufacturing growth has been below 3% annually for the last few years. MSMEs need loan relief and a reworking of repayment plans, not another round of credit bondage.
While the budget follows the 15th Finance Commission’s recommendation to maintain fiscal responsibility with a 3% fiscal deficit and an additional 0.5% borrowing conditional on power sector reforms, it goes against the interests of the states that would like to begin a path of state-specific growth.
Corporate tax rates are unchanged, as they have already been reduced drastically. The outcome: Concentration of wealth and increasing inequalities. Oxfam reports that top 1% of Indians own over 40.5% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 50% have just about 3%. Yet, the government is reluctant to enact wealth taxes. The Saptarishi7’s costume conceals actual India, making it seem even more surreal.
(The author is a member of Kerala State Planning Board)