By PTI
KOLKATA: Terming the union budget presented in Parliament on Tuesday as a “Pegasus spin budget”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it has got nothing for the common people who are being crushed by inflation and unemployment.
Banerjee’s principal chief advisor Amit Mitra claimed there is no direction for financial growth in the union budget and it is “either a hoax or lack of goodwill”.
The opposition BJP supported the Union budget as “pro-people” and asked the TMC government to come out with a white paper on the amount of investment that has materialised in the state in the last ten years.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presenting the union budget in Parliament said the country’s economic growth is expected to be at 9.2 per cent in the current financial year on the back of a sharp rebound in the economy.
Criticising the budget, Banerjee said the Centre was lost in “big words signifying nothing”. “BUDGET HAS ZERO FOR COMMON PEOPLE, WHO ARE GETTING CRUSHED BY UNEMPLOYMENT & INFLATION. GOVT IS LOST IN BIG WORDS SIGNIFYING NOTHING – A PEGASUS SPIN BUDGET (sic),” she tweeted.
Mitra, who was addressing a virtual press conference, said India is the only country globally with stagflation and the union budget will hit rural employment further with the reduction in allocation for the job guarantee scheme.
“There is no allocation for social security schemes. The biggest thing is that there is no solution for middle class employees in the budget. Around 1.20 crore middle class people lost their jobs in lockdown. What is allocated for them in the budget? What is allocated in the budget for the families of those who lost their lives due to COVID? There is nothing,” he said.
Mitra, a former finance minister of the state, said there is no direction of financial growth in this union budget. “The income tax structure remains unchanged. There is nothing for the poor and middle class. The Centre’s budget is either a hoax or a lack of goodwill,” he said.
Mitra said the amount allocated for 100 days work had been reduced from Rs 98,000 crore to Rs 73,000 crore in this year’s budget, which is a “terrible thing”.
The budget does not address the problem of 30 million unemployed people or inflation of 14 per cent of wholesale prices or 6 per cent of the increase in consumer prices.
“It does not stimulate demand by putting money in the hands of the common people – something that all other countries are doing,” he said.
The BJP on the other hand accused Mitra and the TMC government of destroying the state’s economy. “The union budget is a pro-people budget. The TMC has opposed it for political reasons. But before opposing it, TMC should answer why Bengal has been pushed to a debt trap. It should come out with a white paper on the investment the state has received and those which has been implemented on the ground,” BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.
Criticising the union budget as “anti-people’, CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said it is a “Sale India budget conceptualised by a party which has no contribution in either the country’s independence or nation building.”
