PUDUCHERRY: The union budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman is a camouflage budget, benefitting the corporates and betraying the common man, said former Puducherry Chief Minister and Union Minister of State and Senior Congress leader V Narayanasamy.
The budget has failed to concentrate in areas that need focus, particularly the health infrastructure and small industries and service sector. Giving subsidies for building health infrastructure, MSME and service sector is missing, he said.
He said that extending the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) cover by another Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 5 lakh crore will not be useful. "Bank loans of Rs 2 lakh crore to small and micro enterprises, which account for 30 per cent of the country's exports, are disappointing even at a time when the corona is suffering and those institutions are not subsidised. The government should have given some concessions instead of loans as the sector needs a boost," he said.
"It is unfortunate that at a time when this budget is expected to pave the way for the elimination of unemployment, only 80 lakh people will be provided employment, while about 25 crore people are suffering from unemployment," said Narayanasamy.
"The budget has betrayed the salaried class. They had a high expectations of an increase in the income ceiling in this budget but the income ceiling of 2.5 lakh which existed during the Congress rule in 2014 has continued which has disappointed the middle class and working class," he pointed out.
The revenue and the expenditure gap is wide with Rs 24 .84 lakh crore is the income to 39.45 lakh crore is the expenditure, which will mean that 35 per cent of the financial requirement will be borrowed from market and loan. This will lead to inflation, price rise and the economy will be trouble, said Narayanasamy.
Electronic money transfer is welcome as well as determination of 30 per cent income tax on electronic currency is acceptable, he said.