Allocation to health, a conjurer’s trick: Chidambaram

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has deceived the poor, the working class, the migrants, the farmers, the industrial units that had been closed down permanently, and those who had lost their jobs, and there is no heart behind the budget, said former Finance Minister P Chidambaram here on Monday.

The Opposition parties expressed anguish with the way budget has been structured in the backdrop of a slowdown.

Chidambaram dubbed the claims of increased allocation for health a “conjurer’s trick”. “She (Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman) added the one-time cost of vaccination (₹35,000 crore) and the Finance Commission grants amounting to ₹49,214 crore and included the allocations to the Department of Water and Sanitation. Shorn of these add-ons, the allocations for Health were ₹72,934 crore in 2020-21 and ₹79,602 crore in 2021-22. Given inflation, the increase is practically nil,” he added.

‘Intentions only’

He said people will look through the promises made for States such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal where elections are round the corner.

“The voters are not fools. They know that these are outlays. These outlays will not be backed by any money in this budget. I challenge the government to show me one line of entry in the expenditure budget providing one rupee for these programmes. It will not be there,” he said.

Chidambaram said the increase in FDI in the insurance sector was inevitable. He reminded the BJP that it had voted against the Bill allowing 20 per cent FDI in insurance in 1997 and then Prime Minister IK Gujral had to withdraw it. “Today they have allowed 74 per cent FDI in insurance, which is okay in terms of capital mobilisation. They are also going to privatise one of the major insurance companies. I would like to see the reaction of the employees of the insurance companies and the people,” he said.

‘Missing in middle’

“If spending takes place on roads and ports, big business will benefit. We welcome spending on infrastructure. But after 12 quarters of slowdown, equal emphasis should have been given to the poor, to the working class, the migrants, agriculture labour and the daily worker. That is completely missing. The budget may have had a mind behind it, but there is certainly no heart behind it,” he said.

West Bengal Finance Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Amit Mitra said the Budget is not only visionless but also confused. “The only clarity lies in how to sell off government resources and as a result, inequalities have risen. Informal and unorganised sector has not even been mentioned in the Budget.There is nothing innovative for small and medium units,” he asked.

He said the Centre has put a cess for agriculture infrastructure, petrol and diesel cess for agriculture. “The minute you do cess, you do not have to give the money to the States. From 2.5 per cent of cess and surcharges in the Union Budgets till this Government assumed power, it has been raised to 16 per cent.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the budget is neither for the people nor for much publicised V-shaped revival of the economy, but for a K shaped- rich becoming richer, poor poorer. “Budget projecting self reliance, promotes self subservience to corporate profits through a loot of national assets and large scale privatisation. FDI limits in LIC and financial sector hiked for profit maximisation,” he charged.

COMMENT NOW