Kobad Ghandy
In 2019 budget the same Finance minister gifted over Rs.3 lakh crores to the big corporates reducing their tax to one of the lowest in the world. In the current year the big corporates made the highest profits in the past 15 year. Yet on top of this they will have to pay a minuscule 25-30% and after numerous concession tis becomes even smaller. Companies incorporated after 2019 it is a mere 15%.
First lets look at the score card of the ast ten modi Yers before turning to this budget.
SCORECARD
ACCORDING TO EDITORIAL IN Newslundry and other news outlets (Deshbhakt: Akash bannerjee & Adwath):
In the last ten year frm 2014 to 2024:
- i) India’s Tankin in the Human Development Index fell from 130 in 2014 to 134 in 2024;
- ii) In the Global Hunger Index2023 India ranked 111 out of 125 countries – Pakistan and Bangladesh fared much better;
iii) Economic Democracy Index fell from 22 to 47
- iv) India ranks 93 out of 180 countries in the corruption perception index, in 2014 it was 85;
- v) In the Press Freedom Indix India has gone from 40th to 159th
- vi) The value of the rupee has fallen to an all-time low from Rs 61 to the $ in 2014 to about 87 to the $ today; and it keeps falling
vii) Workers real wages in agriculture over the decade have been stagnant
viii) Industries share in the GDP dropped from 31.5% in 2009 to 25% in 2019.
- ix) 60% (78 crores) lived on agriculture and allied activities but contributed ony 16% to the GDP.
- x) We have 50 crore agricultural abourers
- xi) Internal migrants are now 45 crore – 45% increase since the 2001 census. 11 crore o these are employed in the informal sector.
xii) 90% of our people work in the non-formal sector and 90% live in informal settlements.
xiii) There are 1 crore street vendors – 15% of the workforce.
xiv) 1 crore chowkidars – maximum pay is Rs.8,000 per month.
- xv) According to the Global Food Policy report 2022 the number of Indian at risk from hunger is one of the worst in the world.
xvi) India has one of the highest number of underfed children at 36% according to NHFS IV – on the same plane with countries like Ethiopia, Congo Afghanistan….no improvement in NHFS V (1019-20)
xvii) Thelevel of stunting is 36% and underweight children 34% in 2029/20 – same as 2015-16
xviii) More than half Indian children and women are anaemic. The WHO said that 464 children in India die daily due to air pollution
xix) The Environment Performance Index ranked India at the lowest amongst 180 countries.
- xx) The forest cover is is totally destroyed being just 25.2% of the geographical area when the National Foreign Policy of India itself states it should be at least 33% to maintain the ecological balance. As a result air pollution resulted in 10 lakh deaths in 2019.
xxi) Let alone our rivers being turned into defacto sewers even our ground water has been depleted and destroyed. The average stage of groundwater extraction for the country as a whole works out to be about 60.08%. Anything above 70% is considered critical. Sections of nearly 409 districts have been confirmed with fluoride contamination and parts of 209 districts have noted arsenic contamination.
xxii) But this is not all.. And till this day manual scavenging is killing people. Over 400 people died while cleaning septic tanks and sewers in India between 2018 and 2023, the Parliament was informed.
Yet inspite of these horrific conditions Oxfam Report (2022) ‘India Kills’ the government has reduced its expenditure on welfare; India prides itself on being the 5th largest economy in the world (moving to third place) but we are 125th in the Hunger Index. In fact way back in 2012 Manmohan Singh had said that 42 % of our children are malnourished which is a national shame (of course he was silent about the fact that he was probably the single most important factor to reduce us to this state by the reforms of 1990 and his misrule as PM). In fact, according to a March 2024 World Inequality Report has shown than no income inequality has now reached British Era levels in India. Wow what progress, Manmohan Singh!!! Even middle class citizens are fleeing the country – over 2.15 lakh Indian gave up their citizenship and moved to other countries in 2023.
THIS BUDGET: TOWARDS A VIKSIT BHARAT
Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitarmaiahia, says this budget is in the direction of making India a Viksit Bharat by 2047. But she does not address any of the problems mentioned above. In fact Arun Kumar says to achieve this we will need a growth rate of about 8-9% per year, while we are more in the range of 6%. Nor is a word mentioned about reducing the vulgar wealth of the billionaire club of 215 families. The 100 wealthiest of which earn Rs.62 lakh crore annually; or Rs.5,500 per day. These billionaires added $ 750 bn to their wealth in the last decade of Modi’s rule. Adani is now the 4th richest in the world with a wealth of $113 bn while Ambani is the 10th riches with $$ 100 bn (Rs.8 lakh crores).
On average, the poorest half of the population own $4,100, and the top 10 per cent own $771,300. The average national income of the Indian adult population is estimated at Rs 2,04,200. The bottom 50 per cent earns Rs 53,610, while the top 10 per cent earns more than 20 times that at Rs 1,166,520. India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite, said the report prepared by the World Inequality Lab, authored by Lucas Chancel and coordinated by economist Thomas Piketty. According to the World Inequality Report the top 1% own 33% of the country’s wealth. And this does not include the huge amounts of Black money estimated at Around ₹22,000 crores are supposed to have been accumulated by the criminals for vested interests, though writ petitions in the supreme court estimate this to be even larger, at ₹900 lakh crores. The total amount of black money deposited in foreign banks by Indians is unknown. Some reports claim a total of US$1.06 – $1.40 trillion is held illegally in Switzerland. Nanjappa, Vicky (31 March 2009). “Swiss black money ; Rediff.com. Retrieved 23 May 2016.) India already a viksit bharat for these 200+ families and all their political and bureaucratic chamchas
The Budget was presented under 4 heads : Agriculture, MSMEs, Investment & Power without touching on any of the problems mentioned above in fact magnifying all these problems. The only target of all budgets is to win over the middle classes id to constitute about 30% of the population with an annual income from Rs5 -30 lakhs. According to Pew Research centre of March 2024 the Indian middle class was estimated at 66 million – down from 99 million before covid. The middle class has increased from 14% in 2004-05 of the population to about 30% in 2020-21. But this very class is being badly hit due to lack o employment and skyrocketing prices. According to the CMIE over the last five years real wages have grown by 0.01%. While food inflation has been at 11%.
The poorest 50% which earns well under the lowest tax slab of Rs.4 lakh annually faces a hue tax burden through indirect taxes, including GST, Road tax etc. they control a mere 3% of India’s wealthy while the top 1% controls over 40% of the wealth. Over and above that of the total NPAs written off in the last 5 years of Rs.10.6 lakh crores, Rs.550 crores pertained to large industries.
Not only that the middle classes are deeply in debt to maintain their existing std of living – the debt to GDP ratio is gone up to 18% ( an all time high); Debt was $617 bn in March 2024; and was at a record low of 2.2% in 1999. Private consumption of India’s middle classes (which drives growth) is coming down.
Till 2017 there was a decline of 66 million people in agriculture as people moved to urban areas; but the process has since reversed with 68 million being added to agriculture between 2017 and 2024. For any developed economy the proportion of people in agriculture reduces ad that of industry grows – in India that is now reversed – leading not to a viksit bharat but a backward bharat. That is the biter truth of our country and this budget!
Picture Courtesy: The Hindu
