New Delhi:
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday called the Modi government “no data available or NDA” government when he tore down the budget for FY23, saying there are too few welfare measures for the poor, while crony capitalism has led to a rise in the number of billionaires and the rise of monopolies and duopolies.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls the Congress party the leader of the “tukde-tukde” gang, Mr Chidambaram said tukde-tukde means disruption that creates innovation and brings about change.
He started a discussion on budget 2022-23 (FY23) in the Rajya Sabha and said that while there is no word on the implementation of announcements in the previous budgets, the government claims India is spinning fast but it is actually spinning in the same place.
Speaking just after Prime Minister Modi replied to a separate discussion launching a new campaign against Congress, Mr Chidambaram said that if Congress had not been there, Rajya Sabha would not have become the Council of States and would instead there was a Council of the Princes where “regional rulers with their shining armor and flowing turbans” would have been “to the praise of Queen Elizabeth-II”.
“Thank God for the Congress, we have a Rajya Sabha,” he said.
He went on to criticize Prime Minister Modi for speaking eloquently about jobs but not speaking of “the almighty government of India” which recruited 78,264 persons against 8,72,243 vacancies in the central government, leaving nearly 8 lakh posts vacant.
“Disruption is a way for change and innovation. There is disruption in business today. There is disruption in science. There is disruption in technology. There is disruption in every activity because disruption creates innovation and creates the urge to bring about a change,” he said. “I am a member of the tukde-tukde-gang, the Hindi version of the word ‘disruption’.” He scoffed at the government and said that when a question was asked in parliament about the members of the tukde-tukde gang, the minister concerned replied: “We have no data available on the tukde-tukde gang.” Not only that, “there is no data available on the deaths from oxygen deprivation. There is no data available on the bodies flowing on the rivers. There is no data available on how many migrants walked back to their homes. There is no data available on a doubling farmers’ incomes, which should have happened in 2022. This is a government that “has no data available, otherwise the NDA government,” he said.
The former finance minister said he supports wealth creation but to create work and promote well-being.
“India’s economy has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Millions of jobs have been lost in the past two years. Sixty million SMEs have closed. 84 percent of households have suffered income loss. The population’s income has fallen.” , he said.
Mr Chidambaram added that 4.6 crore people have been pushed into extreme poverty, India’s position in the Global Hunger Index has fallen to 101 out of 116 countries, inflation is over 12 percent and there is a flight of talent is out of the country.
“There is the rise of monopolies and duopolies. There is crony capitalism. India’s top 10 percent collect 57 percent of the national income and own 77 percent of the country’s wealth. Sir, 102 billionaires have become 142 billionaires and the wealthy of 142 billionaires has risen from Rs 23 lakh crore to Rs 53 lakh crore in two years,” he said.
The budget has cut subsidies for food, fuel and fertilizers, he said.
“No work has been created and prosperity has been neglected, and you say, ‘we are creating wealth’. You are creating wealth for whom, for the 142 billionaires or for the crony capitalists? Who are you creating wealth for? If wealth is not shared, what’s the point of creating wealth?” This government, he said, has forgotten the poor.
“You forgot the poor. Let me end by saying that the poor will not forget you; the poor have long memories.’ On the FY23 budget, he said the best thing he liked about it was Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman giving her shortest 90-minute budget speech. Then he cited numbers to tear into the budget.
“Last year, the finance minister predicted the budget deficit for 2021-22 at 6.8 percent (of GDP). I warned that it will not be limited to 6.8 percent. They said they would do better than 6, 8 percent. actually done better than 6.8 percent. They did 6.9 percent,” he said.
He stated that he had warned against arbitrary divestments when the target was set at Rs 1.75 lakh crore, he said the government accepted the warning and collected only Rs 78,000 crore.
The latest budget foresaw a capital expenditure – which is used by the government to boost the economy and attract private investment – of Rs 5.54 lakh crore, which was set at Rs 6.02 lakh crore in the revised estimates.
However, this revised number includes a one-time debt payment from Air India of Rs 51,971 crore. “That’s not capital expenditure. That’s a refund to the bank,” he said. Subtracting that, the expenditure of Rs 5.5 lakh crore is less than the budget estimate, he noted.
Mr Chidambaram said two years ago that the government promised to privatize BPCL, Container Corporation of India and Shipping Corporation of India. “There’s not a word in this year’s budget about the progress they’ve made.” Also, there is no word on the Treasury Secretary’s announcement in the latest budget of the privatization of two public sector banks and one insurance company, he said, adding that there is no word on the so-called National Monetization Pipeline that was supposed to be. Raise Rs 6 lakh crore by selling over four year old infrastructure.
No bids have been filed against the announcement to outsource 151 passenger trains on 109 routes to the private sector.
“Why are you making these announcements? Some are bad announcements. Some might be good announcements. Why are you making these announcements if you don’t have the capacity to make any of these announcements? That’s why we don’t take these announcements seriously. We only look at the outcome of the budget,” he said.
The former finance minister, credited with delivering what is popularly known as the “dream budget,” said his party’s overarching economic philosophy is based on 3Ws – work, well-being and wealth.
“We are not against wealth creation. Wealth must be created, but work and jobs must be created and prosperity must be promoted,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Modi’s government pledged 2 crore jobs a year, but the FY23 budget talks about creating 60 lakh jobs in five years through infrastructure spending.
“In 2016-17, India’s GDP grew 8.3 percent. In 2019-20, it fell to 3.7 percent year over year, and in 2020-21, the pandemic year, we entered a recession. but in four years this government has reduced the growth rate – pre-pandemic – from 8.3 percent to 3.7 percent,” he said.
In 2019-20, GDP in constant terms was Rs 145 lakh crore. In 2020-21, the pandemic year, it amounted to Rs 135 lakh crore.
“We will only grow if we go back to Rs 145 lakh crore. We have not reached that stage yet. The government claims we are running fast but we are running fast to stay in the same place. You have to run fast to move forward. You can don’t run in the same spot. This is not a treadmill,” he noted.
The budget, he said, forecasts 2022-23 nominal growth of 11.1 percent, while the new Chief Economic Advisor has estimated real growth at 8 percent.
“Now the Treasury Secretary must make clear to this House what is right. Will nominal growth be 11.1 percent and real growth 8 percent? In what case will the Treasury Secretary assure this House that inflation will only be about 3.1 percent?” he said.