NEWSNOTES
On The Union Budget 2000-2001
From India News Network(INN)
All India Kisan Sabha
S.Ramachandran Pillai, MP and president of All India Kisan Sabha issued the following
statement:
The AIKS considers the union budget anti-peasant and anti-agriculture. The reduction of
allocations on agriculture and rural development will accelerate the process of decline in
food grains and agricultural production. The cut imposed on the subsidies on chemical
fertilizer will push up the prices of chemical fertilizers. This will increase the burden
of the peasants and also contribute to the declining trend in agricultural production.
In the context of lifting quantitative restrictions on import of agricultural produces,
the cut on customs duty proposed in the budget will facilitate more imports and cause more
fluctuations in prices. Already the peasantry is adversely affected by price fluctuations.
The claim of the finance minister that more credit facilities are provided to the
agricultural sector is unreal.
The budget erodes the public distribution system and will cause rise in food prices. The
prices of all essential commodities and inputs for agricultural production also will
increase due to the increase in excise duty.
The proposal to set up a National Commission on Land Use Policy is meant for facilitating
the on going process of reversal of land reforms and to transfer land to big business and
multinational companies.
The budget keeps silent on expanding Crop Insurance Scheme.
The budge proposals will increase rural unemployment, poverty and unevenness in growth and
pauperization.
The AIKS urge upon the peasantry to come forward to resist the anti-peasant,
anti-agriculture budget.
All India Agricultural Workers Union
A. Vijayaraghavan, MP and general secretary of AIAWU has issued the following statement:
The All India Agricultural Worker's Union urged upon its activists to protest against the
union budget which is totally against the interest of the vulnerable section in our
society. Through the budget the BJP government is trying to eliminate the existing public
distribution system which has been crippling because of the earlier decisions to increase
the prices of the commodities distributing through PDS, almost up to the same level that
of the open market price. India with the largest number of its population living under
below poverty line spends only less than half percent of its GDP for food subsidy has
virtually phase out the PDS shops through this year budget proposals.
The ineffective decision to increase the fertilizer prices will further cut down the
working days of agricultural labourers who are already force to migrate from their usual
place of residence due to increased poverty created in their living conditions after the
liberalised economic policies pursued by successive central governments. For the deprived
section this budget is an inexpert piece of policies which would further debilitate the
rural masses in their struggle for livelihood. Therefore, AIAWU urged upon all the
democratic minded people to raise their protest jointly against the anti-people proposals
of the union budget.
Students' Federation of India
The Central Executive Committee of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) has issued the
following statement:
The Central Budget for the year 2000-2001 presented by the finance minister Yaswant Sinha
was full of frustrations for the people of India. It is a Fund-Bank-dictated budget.
This budget is a reflection of the ongoing liberalistion programme which will only help
the foreign multinational companies and the rich people. The common men and the poor
people will face more hardship in the coming days, as an outcome of the budget placed by
BJP led NDA government.
The country is facing a negative growth in agriculture. The fiscal deficit is much higher
which will lead to higher inflation and the withdrawal of allocation in the social sector.
The finance minister fails to keep his own promises. The unemployment will go up further
in manifold as the outcome of the budget proposals.
This budget harmed the social sector severely. Allocation for education will create
further frustration among the academic community as a whole. No gesture has been shown to
execute elementary education as a fundamental right. The increase in allocation for
elementary education by 573.80 crores will not be able to meet even 5% of the necessity.
Further, in the last year's budget, Rs.182.71 crores were unspent in this regard. This
high gap between the budget estimate and revised estimate reflects the unwillingness of
the BJP-led NDA government to make elementary education a fundamental right. In the
Operation Blackboard scheme, Rs 10 crores were unspent. No increase in this regard has
been proposed. In non-formal education 190 crores were unspent in the year. This year the
allocation has been reduced by 50 crores.
In secondary education only 93.32 crore enhancement has been proposed. In the last year's
budget 80.20 crores were unspent. It implies that this year also the same thing will
repeat, which means reduction in the allocation in real terms. Vocationalisation of
education at the school level has been seriously neglected. Last year the government even
didn't spend 50% of the allocation. The allocation for promotion of science labs in
secondary schools has been reduced by 4 crores. In this regard it is relevant to mention
that nearly 15 crores were unspent last year.
Higher education is now facing an attack from the BJP led NDA government. They are trying
to privatise and commercialise the entire higher education. This year the allocation for
the higher education is less by 26.42 crores compared to last year's Budget Estimate. Last
year 228.33 crores could not be spent by the government. Though there is a severe resource
crunch with the UGC, virtually there is no increase. Allocation for the programme to
strengthen scientific research decreased by 4 crores. For the upgradation of libraries and
laboratories in universities and colleges, last year 20 crores were earmarked but not a
single paisa was spent. This year the proposal is nil.
Technical education is another area of neglect. Last year 70.60 crores were unspent. This
year the allocation is reduced further. Allocation for the IITs has been reduced by 45.58
crores. The government announced to upgrade all the 40 RECs to the standard of IITs. The
budget proves it was nothing but a complete bluff of the BJP led NDA government. Only 20
crores have been enhanced for this purpose. This meagre enhancement will not be able even
to maintain the present standard of the RECs. The allocation for Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore, IIMs, SPA and for research & development has been reduced.
The budget reflects the BJP-led NDA government's intention to shun its responsibility of
educating Indian pupil and to commericialise education as a whole, particularly higher
education. In the budget, though the allocation for R&D has been reduced, the
allocation for Sanskrit teaching has been enhanced. This is a clear intention to take back
the student community to the mediaeval period, which the RSS wants.
The Central Executive Committee of SFI urges upon the entire academic community to raise
their voice against the BJP led government's budget proposals which are against the
national interest, the youth and students, and the common people's interest.
Bank Employees Federation of India(BEFI)
As apprehended, Central government budget for this year placed before the parliament by
the finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, contains many proposals which will affect our
national economy very severely and will go a long way to sub-serve the interest of the
indigenous as well as overseas business tycoons. While a study of the full implications of
the budget in depth will take time, certain glaring proposals unmistakably point out as to
which way our government is going.
Responding to the Narasimham Committee recommendations, the budget provides for further
dilution of government's/Reserve Bank's holdings in public sector banks to 33%. The most
reprehensible is the proposal for raising the ceiling of equity holding of foreign
institutional investors in the public sector banks. This is not only a big step for
privatisation of the nationalised banks, but is also a red carpet ovation to the foreign
investors to spread their tentacles over our banking industry.
Granting of autonomy to the profit making banks cannot be taken without a pinch of salt.
In the name of autonomy, these banks will be tempted to do away with social banking of
extending credit to the priority sectors like agriculture and small-scale industry to the
detriment of the national economy. Setting up of a separate agency for looking into the
weak banks as proposed in the budget hardly touches the real issue. The minister has
conspicuously evaded any drastic step for recovery of the colossal amount of defaulted
loans because of which the banking industry is under severe strain.
The proposal for introduction of widespread VRS will have disastrous effects on the job
market. It is observed that for some period, government has made it a policy to cut down
interest on small savings contributed overwhelmingly by the domestic savings, salary
earners and small traders. Budget proposals for reduction of interest on PF by 1% will
hard hit the common people who have already suffered as a result of the government policy.
The proposal of enhancing the surcharge on income tax to 15% from the present 10% is a
volte-face on art of the governmental parties which assured further tax relief before the
elections.
The BEFI condemns the anti-people proposals of the budget and appeals to all trade unions
and democratic organisations to mobilise the people to defeat the government's design as
reflected in the budget. The BEFI will wholeheartedly join with them for this purpose. |
