Tag: union budget 2023

Lok Sabha Adjourns Due to Lack of Quorum as Ruling Party MPs Leave After PM’s Address

The issue was flagged by DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran, speaker pressed the quorum bell but floor managers were unable to gather 55 MPs to complete it.

New Delhi: On a day when the prime minister delivered a nearly 90-minute speech during the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, the Lok Sabha had to be adjourned on Wednesday, February 8, by the speaker on account of a lack of quorum. Terming the incident as “unfortunate”, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and Lok Sabha MP Dayanidhi Maran who raised the issue of quorum with the speaker said most of the ruling party MPs left after the PM’s address.

Maran raised the issue of quorum soon after his colleague, T.R. Baalu, completed his speech on a debate on the Union Budget. Though speaker Om Birla rang the quorum bell, the House could not muster the 55 MPs required to complete it. Thereafter it was adjourned.

Coming out of the Parliament building, Maran said: “The moment the prime minister gave his reply, the entire Treasury bench vacated the House – this with an important Bill such as the Budget to be passed. And when the Opposition parties were trying to make their comments, there was literally no member of the ruling party or a senior minister present.”

“When I raised the issue fortunately the speaker was there. I pressed for the quorum and the Speaker took note. As per the norm, three times the quorum bell has to be rung and the House is to assemble within 10 minutes,” he pointed out. He said while the opposition members were there, the Treasury members were not present in adequate numbers and so the Speaker had to adjourn the House.

According to the Lok Sabha site, “the quorum to constitute a sitting of the House is one-tenth of the total number of Members of the House under Article 100(3) of the constitution.”

Maran termed the development as unfortunate. “I think in the last 10 or 15 years such a thing has never happened. It is quite an unfortunate incident that there was a lack of quorum in the House. The quorum rule says that 10% of the members have to be present during a discussion,” he said.

He also insisted that “when the Finance Bill is discussed at least two Union ministers have to be there,” and added that “unfortunately, two Union ministers were also not present; only one minister of state was present. It is quite unfortunate that the ruling party, the Treasury benches, do not respect the Parliament.”

Incidentally, as per the news agency PTI, the Lok Sabha on Wednesday had extended its sitting till 8 pm to continue the debate on the Union Budget. It also quoted Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as saying while speaking to journalists outside parliament that “soon after the prime minister completed his speech and left, all his sycophants also followed him. The House had to be adjourned for want of quorum.”

Prior to this, the business of the Lok Sabha had collapsed similarly on June 28, 2019. At that time, Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann had raised the issue of lack of quorum during a discussion on a private member resolution on water scarcity and the Ken-Betwa river linking project. The House had adjourned then too due to the lack of an adequate number of MPs.

Watch | ‘Rs 10 Lakh Crore Capex Claim Misleading, Unlikely to be Fully Used’

In an interview with Karan Thapar, Pronab Sen said the budget will address the issue of unemployment only if it can create new MSMEs.

In an interview that punctures holes in the initial impression of the budget and strips away some of its glitz and presentational glamour, India’s former Chief Statistician Pronab Sen says that the budget announcement of a 33% increase in capital investment by the government to Rs 10 lakh crore, amounting to 3.3% of the GDP, is misleading.

He says a substantial part of this increase in capex has happened by reducing the capex of PSUs. Second, the Rs 1.3 lakh crore going to the states as 50-year loans may not be an increase in capex but simply a change in the source of its funding. Third, some of this Rs 10 lakh crore may not be capex at all depending upon how BSNL and BPCL utilise the Rs 83,000 crore, which is 8.3% of the Rs 10 lakh, allocated to them. It’s quite possible these two companies may utilise this as budgetary support rather than capex. Fourth, professor Sen says that it’s almost certain that perhaps up to 50% of the 2.4 lakh crore allocation to the railways and the 1.62 lakh crore for highways may not be used at all and could return to the government.

In a 40-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Pronab Sen – presently the country director of the International Growth Centre – agreed that the announcement that government capex has risen to Rs 10 lakh crore serves two purposes. First, it captured the headlines, cheered the stock market and, therefore, enhanced appreciation of the budget. Second, because a large proportion of it is likely not to be utilised, it will provide sufficient cushioning if during the course of the financial year government spending on items like NREGA and fertilizer subsidies has to be increased. That, in turn, would help protect the 5.9% fiscal deficit target, which has been achieved by slashing next year’s expenditure.

Professor Sen expressed doubts about whether the government’s hope to revive private investment with its enhanced capital expenditure allocation will materialise. A lot depends, he said, on the revival of the MSME sector and, within that, a lot critically depends on whether new MSMEs are created to replace the approximately 20% that died and disappeared during the pandemic. That, in turn, he said depends upon whether finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has done enough to revive demand by putting money in people’s pockets. The big question here is whether people who have incomes and are spending them will spend more as a result of her taxation measures. Sen said that the roughly Rs 4 lakh crore capex going to the railways and highways may not revive demand as effectively as the government hopes both because large proportions of this may not be utilised and also because it may not create a lot of jobs.

Speaking about employment and whether this budget will lead to the creation of jobs, the economist said a lot depends upon whether new MSMEs are created. They are the main providers of jobs in the economy.

Ultimately, professor Sen said, the government’s hopes of reviving private investment depend on whether the MSME sector revives and whether that in turn creates new jobs which, in turn, put money in people’s pockets which they can spend and thus create demand. It’s that demand that will provide the incentive to the private sector to invest.

Watch the full interview to understand and appreciate Pronab Sen’s viewpoint.

‘Need Concrete Blueprint, Not Sloganeering‘: Safai Karamcharis on Budget Promise on Sewage System

‘All the noise about mechanical cleaning of sewers and septic tanks neither has any accountability nor transparency,’ the Safai Karamchari Andolan said in a statement released on February 1.

New Delhi: The Safai Karamchari Andolan has slammed finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s promise of ‘manhole to machine hole’ to end manual scavenging as a “gimmickry of words”.

“All the noise about mechanical cleaning of sewers and septic tanks neither has any accountability nor transparency,” the organisation said in a statement released on February 1.

It added that safai karamcharis need a concrete blueprint, not mere sloganeering.

In her budget speech, Sitharaman said, “All cities and towns will be enabled for 100% transition of sewers and septic tanks from manhole to machine hole mode.”

Bezwada Wilson, national convenor of Safai Karamchari Andolan, said that the Union Budget 2023-24 has “nothing to offer to those who have been forced to take up manual scavenging for generations because of their caste”.

“[The] budget fails to take notice of hundreds of deaths taking place in sewers or septic tanks, all these years, whereas we at Safai Karamchari Andolan have been demonstrating on the streets daily for the last 264 days in various parts of the country, demanding to put a complete halt on deaths taking place in sewers and septic tanks. Ironically, since we started this #StopKillingUs campaign on May 11, 2022, there have been more than 50 deaths of Indian citizens inside sewers and septic tanks. But, governments are mum on that,” he said in the statement.

The Safai Karamchari Andolan demanded that the budget should have mentioned a clear deadline for the eradication of manual scavenging in all its forms, and a separate package to rehabilitate safai karamcharis and provide them a dignified job.

Also read: Manual Scavenging Is Continuing Unabated in India – And Even Children Are Forced Into It

Manual scavenging was outlawed in 1993 and again in 2013.

In 2013, the parliament had enacted the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act outlawing all manual excrement cleaning. In 2014, the Supreme Court had directed all the states to abolish manual scavenging and take steps for rehabilitation of such workers.

However, nothing has changed since 2014, Wilson said.

“People are dying inside sewers and septic tanks and even dry latrines still exist. Why?” he said.

According to the Census of India (2011), there are still 2.6 million dry latrines in the nation that need somebody to empty the waste.

There are 7,94,390 dry latrines where humans clean excreta — 73% of these are in rural areas and 27% are in urban areas. Apart from these, there are 13,14,652 toilets where human excreta is flushed into open drains.

He also highlighted that the government had said that no person had died from manual scavenging in the country between 2019 and 2022. It had instead called them deaths due to hazardous cleaning of septic tanks and sewers.

The Wire had reported, citing responses to Right to Information queries, that between 1993 and 2019, families of only around 50% of the workers who died cleaning sewers have received the compensation of Rs 10 lakh each. The report added that in several cases, the compensation amount was less than Rs 10 lakh.

Budget 2023: No Effective Rise for Health Deptartment, Experts Say

Though the allocations for the department rose marginally, it does not amount to much once adjusted for inflation. Experts also pointed out that the revised estimates for last year’s budget were lower than the budgeted estimate.

New Delhi: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s proposal to allocate Rs 86,175 crore to the department of health and family welfare for the financial year 2023-24, on the face of it, meant an increase of 3.82% compared to the previous budget.

However, in real terms, it meant a decline, experts said. “While this appears to be an increase, adjusting with inflation, this is actually a decline in funds,” says Indranil Mukhopadhyay, a health economist, who teaches at O.P. Jindal University. The inflation for December 2022 last year was 5.5%. “Therefore, to say that the budget for the health department has gone up is not true at all,” he added.

Former president of the Public Health Foundation of India K. Srinath Reddy said the allocation signals that health was not a dominant priority. “The priority is economic development and to focus on the economic growth story of the country. It is understandable because the worst phase of the pandemic is behind us,” he asked. Asked if pre-pandemic budgetary allocations gave sufficient room to do it at the cost of health, Reddy said, “Not very much.”

The budget claimed that the percentage of GDP spent on health has gone up to 2.1%. Both the experts The Wire spoke to expressed doubts, saying it was not clear whether only the health budget has been included in making this calculation or schemes which apparently improve health but are that of other departments have also been taken into consideration. For instance, in her speech presenting the Union Budget 2021-22, Sitharaman, had claimed that the “health and wellness budget” had been increased by 137% – when she had included the funds allocated to the departments of health, health research as well as drinking water and sanitation.

Furthermore, the budget documents also revealed in the last financial year, the government failed to allocate to the department of health what it had proposed. Against the budget estimates of Rs 83,000 crore, the revised estimates stood at only Rs 76,370 crore for the FY 2022-23.

An analysis of budgets of five preceding financial years showed this is the first time where the revised estimate was lower than the budgeted estimate. 

Also Read: Eight Charts to Make Sense of Budget 2023

New announcements

Sitharaman, in her budget speech on Wednesday, announced the launch of a special mission to “eliminate” sickle cell anaemia by 2047. “It will entail awareness creation, universal screening of 7 crore people in the age group of 0-40 years in affected tribal areas, and counselling through collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments.” According to the tribal affairs ministry, this genetic condition is widespread among members of tribes. One in 86 births among Scheduled Tribes suffered from it, the data showed.

There is no specific head in the budget documents to say how much would be spent this year on tackling sickle cell anaemia. The health ministry, though, has clarified that it will be a part of the National Health Mission – an umbrella scheme of managing various programmes in which the Centre contributes 60% and the rest is borne by state governments. No more details are available on this Mission.

It may be noted here that this is yet another elimination target that India has set for itself after missing deadlines for similar targets for other diseases. Kala Azar (elimination deadline 2020), and filariasis (2017) are two such examples. Now, their deadlines stand revised for 2023 and 2030, respectively. India also envisages eliminating tuberculosis by 2025 – a target that experts say may not be achieved.

The finance minister also announced plans to open 157 new nursing colleges. “This is a welcome move as it will not only make India self-sufficient in nurses but also help generate human capital for other countries, especially, which have an ageing population,” Reddy, currently the honorary distinguished professor at the Public Health Foundation of India, said.

However, it remains to be seen if the creation of more nursing colleges will fill up the vacancies in rural areas. The latest Rural Health Statistics of India revealed that the creation of more medical colleges has failed to solve the problem of inadequacy of doctors in rural areas.

Nurses receive COVID-19 vaccine dose, at a nursing training college in Thane, Friday, July 30, 2021. Photo: PTI

Pharmaceuticals

Yet another important announcement came regarding the pharmaceutical industry. “A new programme to promote research and innovation in pharmaceuticals will be taken up through centres of excellence. We shall also encourage industry to invest in research and development in specific priority areas,” Sitharaman said.

The budget documents reveal that a major hike in allocation for this department has actually been done under the head ‘development of pharmaceutical industry’. Under this head, Rs 1250 crore have been proposed as allocation against Rs 100 crore last year. Under this head, the biggest amount has gone to the subhead ‘promotion of Bulk Drug Parks’ (Rs 900 crore) and promotion of Medical Device Parks (Rs 200 crore), among other components.

The idea behind both these components is common – infrastructure facilities for drugs, or medical devices, as the case may be – to bring down their cost of production. Bulk drugs, or Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) are the main ingredients, or raw materials, of a medicine. Both these schemes were launched in 2020. This hike has been hailed by the pharmaceutical industry.

But what has seen a decrease is the production-linked incentive scheme (PLI) for manufacturing of APIs. Though the Indian pharma industry is the third largest in the world, by volume, its dependence on the import of APIs has been a matter of concern for a long time. To reduce this dependence, and increase domestic manufacturing of APIs, a PLI scheme to handhold SMEs and MSMEs was launched in 2020 for 10 years.

According to a reply given in the Lok Sabha in July last year, India imported APIs worth Rs 35,249 crore in 2021-22, as against exports worth Rs 33,320 crore. In the two years prior to this, as per the reply, the exports though had slightly outstripped the imports – a trend that saw a reversal in 2021-22. Amidst this, the allocation for PLI linked to APIs this year has seen almost a four-fold decrease to Rs 100 crore.

No specific allocations for research and innovation

As far as research and innovation in pharmaceuticals is concerned, which the minister described in her speech, there seems to be no specific allocation as such. The details to roll this out may come later in the year.

The Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMed), nonetheless, minced no words in expressing disappointment. In a press release, its coordinator Rajiv Nath said the government did nothing to bring down the dependence on imports of this equipment. “Though our honourable prime minister urges India to become Atmanirbhar in Medical Devices, the medical devices imports continued to grow at an alarming level by 41% in FY22,” he said.

“Imports of Medical Devices from China went up by nearly 50% last year on account of low duties and convenience to import. These are the same domestic manufacturers, when imports got disrupted during the COVID-19 crisis, the government relied heavily on them to meet the rising demand for essential COVID items,” he added.

The department of health research, which functions under the Union health ministry, saw a cut from Rs 3,200 crore in last year’s budget to Rs 2,980 crore for the next fiscal.

The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), which functions under the Union science and technology ministry and played a crucial role in the development of COVID-19 vaccines in India, got Rs 40 crore – a hike of Rs 5 crore in absolute terms. BIRAC is a not-for-profit company that serves as an ‘industry-academia interface’ to aid innovation in biotechnology.

Representative image of pharmaceutical research. Photo: Louis Reed/Unsplash

The budget for the National Health Mission (NHM) – a combined programme of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) – which is arguably one of the biggest umbrella schemes of the health ministry that seeks to serve various verticals including the health of children and women, also came down from Rs  37,159 crore previous year to Rs 36,785 crore this year.

Under the Tertiary Care Programme of the Centre, all major non-communicable diseases, which are on the rise in India, are covered. To aid their treatment, the Union government transfers money to states for the implementation of schemes for cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, health care for the elderly, the national blindness control programme, telemedicine, mental health and tobacco control. Its budget was slashed to Rs 289 crore from Rs 500 crore.

Chart: The Sharp Decline in Total Expenditure on Social Security Schemes

The 2023-24 Budget has seen a new round of cuts in social-security schemes, with declining allocations in real terms for NREGA, social security pensions, child nutrition programmes and maternity benefits.

The 2023-24 Budget has seen a new round of cuts in social-security schemes, with declining allocations in real terms for NREGA, social security pensions, child nutrition programmes and maternity benefits. Taking all these together, we are more or less back to square one after 20 years, in terms of total expenditure on these schemes as a proportion of GDP (see Graph).

Governments have as much of an obligation to redistribution as to fostering growth. What we are seeing more and more is that allocations for social security schemes are going down in real terms, and sometimes even in nominal terms. One mind-boggling example is that the Central contribution to old-age pensions has stagnated at Rs 200 per month since 2006. Child nutrition schemes such as ICDS and school meals have also been grossly defunded in recent years. This year’s drastic MGNREGA budget cut is another example.

Graph: Reetika Khera

Green Growth Ranks High in Union Budget 2023-24

Focus on green credits, green power, green mobility, among others.

Kochi: Green found prominence in the Union Budget 2023-24 that finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman presented on Wednesday, January 31, in parliament. Green growth – from green credits to green energy to green mobility to green farming – was among the seven main priorities that made it to the Budget this year.

At the same time, the Budget also envisions developments that would not qualify as green growth, such as constructing 50 additional airports, and identifying 100 projects to develop last-mile connectivity for sectors such as coal and ports. Moreover, there are no budgetary allocations for crucial projects such as the National Climate Change Action Plan, the National Adaptation Plan and the National Mission on Himalayan Studies. This comes at a time when Joshimath and several other towns in the state of Uttarakhand in the Himalaya are facing land displacement. 

Experts have welcomed the focus on green growth. However, India must ensure that financial support is directed towards low-carbon technologies and identify areas of environmental degradation and the areas of the economy on which this has the greatest impact and take steps to address them, they said.

Also Read: Eight Charts to Make Sense of Budget 2023

Green, green, green

Green growth is among the four opportunities that can be “transformative during Amrit Kaal”, said Sitaraman, as she read out the Union Budget 2023-24. 

“We are implementing many programmes for green fuel, green energy, green farming, green mobility, green buildings, and green equipment, and policies for efficient use of energy across various economic sectors,” Sitaraman said. “These green growth efforts help in reducing carbon intensity of the economy and provides for large-scale green job opportunities.”

Green growth is one of the seven priorities or saptarishi to guide India into Amrit Kaal, per Sitaraman. The prime minister’s vision of “LiFE”, or Lifestyle for Environment, will move the country toward an “environmentally conscious lifestyle”, she said. “India is moving forward firmly for the panchamrit and net-zero carbon emission by 2070 to usher in green industrial and economic transition.”

A Green Credit programme to “encourage behavioural change” will be notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, she added. “This will incentivise environmentally sustainable and responsive actions by companies, individuals and local bodies, and help mobilise additional resources for such activities.”

“The government clearly identifies green growth as one of the pillars of development, announcing support measures for storage and renewable energy evacuation infrastructure. This is a welcome move as India tries to rapidly increase the share of renewables in the grid,” said Balasubramanian Viswanathan, policy advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). “The minister of finance also pledged Rs 35,000 crore in support for net zero and energy transition objectives, although the details of the plan are yet to be seen.”

The budget allocation for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change increased from a revised estimate of Rs 2,478 crore in the last budget to Rs 3,079.4 crore this year. A separate budget has been allocated for the National Mission on Natural Farming, at Rs 459 crore. The budget for controlling pollution increased from a revised estimate of Rs 600 crore last year to Rs 756 crore in the latest budget.

Green power

The budget for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has also increased this year – by more than Rs 3,000 crore. It rose from a budget estimate of Rs 6,900 crore (and a revised estimate of Rs 7,033 crore) last year to Rs 10, 222 crore in the Union Budget 2023-24. The budget of solar energy central sector schemes has now increased from Rs 185 crore in the last fiscal to Rs 361 crore, as per the latest budget.

“The recently launched National Green Hydrogen Mission, with an outlay of Rs 19,700 crore, will facilitate the transition of the economy to low carbon intensity, reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports, and make the country assume technology and market leadership in this sunrise sector,” Sitaraman said. “Our target is to reach an annual production of 5 MMT by 2030.”

To further green mobility, the import of capital goods and machinery required for the manufacture of lithium-ion cells for batteries used in electric vehicles will be exempted from customs duties.

To steer the economy on the sustainable development path, funding has also been initiated for Battery Energy Storage Systems: a capacity of 4,000 MWH will be supported with Viability Gap Funding (VGF), announced Sitaraman. “A detailed framework for Pumped Storage Projects will also be formulated,” she said. 

The VGF support and greater thrust on pumped hydro are critical to helping India move towards meeting the Energy Storage Obligation targets, said Rishabh Jain, senior programme lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). 

“The VGF support should however be leveraged to increase our understanding of the technology and application and should not be considered as a continuous tool for support,” Jain said. “Further, the exemption of customs duty for capital goods and machinery for lithium-ion battery manufacturing will reduce the final prices of batteries and make electric vehicles more affordable for consumers. CEEW Analysis suggests that the key equipment for battery cell manufacturing is imported and their share is between 65-75% of the overall infrastructure costs. Going forward, the government must aim to acquire critical minerals from overseas and build the capability to process them, the analysis said.

Representative image of an electric car battery charging. Photo: Pixabay

More green moves for sustainability 

The finance minister announced a new project, ‘Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes’ or MISHTI, which will involve planting mangroves along the coastline and on salt pan lands, wherever feasible, through convergence between MGNREGA, CAMPA Fund and other sources. ‘Amrit Dharohar’, another new scheme, will be implemented over the next three years to “encourage optimal use of wetlands, and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism opportunities and income generation for local communities”.

States and cities will be encouraged to undertake urban planning reforms and actions to transform cities into ‘sustainable cities of tomorrow’, Sitaraman said. “This means efficient use of land resources, adequate resources for urban infrastructure, transit-oriented development, enhanced availability and affordability of urban land, and opportunities for all.”

Three centres of excellence for Artificial Intelligence will be set up in top educational institutions and leading industry players will “partner in conducting interdisciplinary research, develop cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health, and sustainable cities”, she added.

Apart from enabling mechanical desludging of septic tanks and sewers in cities and towns to transition from “manhole to machine-hole mode”, an enhanced focus will also be provided for the “scientific management of dry and wet waste”, the finance minister said. Plans are also on the cards for 500 new ‘waste to wealth’ plants under the GOBARdhan (Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme to promote a circular economy. These will include 200 compressed biogas (CBG) plants, including 75 plants in urban areas, and 300 community or cluster-based plants at a total investment of  Rs 10,000 crore. 

In the drought-prone central region of Karnataka, central assistance of Rs 5,300 crore will be given to Upper Bhadra Project to provide sustainable micro irrigation and filling up of surface tanks for drinking water. The state is set to have an assembly election in the first half of this year.

The government would give one of the Indian Institutes of Technology a research and development grant to encourage the indigenous development and production of lab-grown diamonds, which is a “technology-and innovation-driven emerging sector with high employment potential”, Sitaraman said. These environment-friendly diamonds have the same optical and chemical properties as natural diamonds, she said.

The Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman departs from North Block to Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament House to present the Union Budget 2023-24, in New Delhi on February 01, 2023. Photo: PIB

Infra push, again

Yet at the same time, more infrastructure is also on the cards – infrastructure that may not really promote a green economy. For instance, Sitaraman said that the government has identified 100 “critical transport infrastructure projects” for last and first-mile connectivity for sectors including ports, coal, steel and fertilizers. These will be taken up on priority with an investment of Rs 75,000 crore, of which Rs 15,000 crore will come from private sources. Fifty additional airports, heliports, water aerodromes and advance landing grounds will be revived for improving regional air connectivity, she said.

Upon inspection of the petroleum ministry’s budget, support of Rs 30,000 crore (equivalent to the Rs 35,000 crore in support for net zero and energy transition objectives) as capital support for oil-marketing companies (OMCs) and Rs 5,000 crore for strategic petroleum reserves were found, said Viswanathan of the IISD. “While controlling energy prices and ensuring energy security is critical, India must ensure that financial support is directed towards low carbon technologies.”

To enhance ease of doing business, more than 39,000 compliances have been reduced and more than 3,400 legal provisions have been decriminalised, Sitaraman said in her Budget speech. Experts have pointed out how improving “ease of doing business” has been detrimental to the environment due to dilutions in environmental law that make it easier for businesses to be implemented.

“It is laudable that the green growth framework used by the honourable finance minister will guide investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable transportation,” said Anjal Prakash, research director, Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business. “However, we need to identify the areas of environmental degradation and areas of the economy where environmental degradation has the greatest impact and take steps to address them. The economic survey 2023, unfortunately, didn’t have enough analysis on this front that could have informed the green budget.”

Several crucial programmes – such as the Climate Change Action Plan, National Adaptation Fund and the National Mission on Himalayan Studies – found no allocation in this year’s budget. Last year’s budget earmarked Rs 30 crore, 60 crore and 48 crore respectively for these programmes. But even this was inadequate, writer and activist Nityanand Jayaraman of the Vettiver Collective told The Wire Science last year. 

The lack of funds for the National Mission on Himalayan Studies comes at a time when land displacement has been a huge concern in Himalayan hill towns such as Joshimath.

The Climate Resilient Agriculture Initiative, a central sector scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare that was allocated funds of Rs 40 crore in the last fiscal year, has no budgetary allocation this time.

Watch | Budget 2023: ‘Public Investment Alone Cannot Address Structural Weaknesses’

The Union government needs to focus on sustainable growth and address structural weaknesses in the economy, says M.K. Venu.

In this year’s budget, the Union government announced a big tax relief for middle-class earners. This is to boost private consumption. It has also increased capital expenditure by 33% to Rs 10 lakh crore – the highest on record, as per reports. However, public investment alone would not suffice, says M.K. Venu, a founding editor of The Wire, in this budget discussion with Taniya Roy. Instead, the government needs to focus on sustainable growth and address structural challenges. Watch the full discussion to understand why this is so.

Opposition Parties Slam Budget 2023, Say It Doesn’t Address Inflation and Unemployment

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said that the Union Budget was presented with the assembly elections in 2023 and the 2024 parliamentary elections in mind, terming it “totally opportunistic and anti-people”.

New Delhi: A host of opposition parties said on Wednesday, February 1, that the Union Budget 2023 does not address pressing issues like inflation, price rise and unemployment that are affecting the people of the country. 

Terming it a “contradictory, anti-people budget”, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)]’s politburo said that the Union Budget 2023-24 did not address the central issue of “increasing people’s purchasing power with job generation” and boosting domestic demand, given how the Indian economy has slowed down over the last two years. 

The Left party said that while the government expenditure may look big in absolute numbers, it has shrunk if seen as a percentage of the GDP. The increase in government expenditure is negligible if inflation and population growth are factored in, it said. 

The CPI(M) said that the government expenditures have been “squeezed” further to reduce the fiscal deficit instead of boosting domestic demand. It added that the Budget’s lack of attention towards growing inequality in the country may only “aggravate the economic crisis”, even as the government has given further tax concessions to the rich. 

The party particularly targeted the Union government for a 33% decrease in the allocation of MGNREGA at a time when the unemployment rate is at a “historic high”. 

“Food subsidy is cut by Rs 90,000 crore. Fertilizer subsidy by Rs 50,000 crore and petroleum subsidy by Rs 6,900 crore. Despite the devastation caused by the pandemic, Rs 9,255 crore of the last year’s allocation for health remained unspent. Likewise, Rs 4,297 crore remained unspent in the education budget,” the CPI(M) statement said. 

It said that the social sector has been neglected in the Union Budget. 

“The already measly remuneration for ICDS Scheme workers sees no increase. The gender budget is only 9% of the total expenditure. The SC Budget is only 3.5% against a population of 16% and the ST Budget is only 2.7% against a population of 8.6%. The hollowness of bombastic claims of doubling farmers’ incomes is seen in the reduction of PM Kisan Fund allocation from Rs 68,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore,” the party said. 

It further said that the tax exemptions for the middle class too are negligible and will be offset by inflationary pressures and cuts in social sector expenditure.

The party said that it will hold nationwide protests seeking higher wages for MGNREGA workers, restoration of subsidised food grains, and withdrawal of GST on food and essential commodities between February 22 and 28, 2023.

Other opposition parties also criticised the government for allegedly ignoring pertinent concerns like unemployment and poverty, and underlined the government’s alleged failures over the last eight years. The Congress called the budget “callous“, adding that it could not be more removed from reality and people’s “concerns about life, livelihood and the growing inequality between the rich and the poor”.

Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav said that while the BJP had promised to double farmers’ income, provide housing to everyone and create 80 crore jobs by 2022, none of these promises have been fulfilled.


Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said that the Union Budget presented on Wednesday was no different from previous years in which the concerns of the poor were neglected. She said that it was only because of the “narrow-minded” policies of the government that the poor are suffering in the so-called “Amrit Kaal”. She added that while the Union government sees the budget as yet another opportunity to make grand announcements and promises, the truth is that the middle class and the poor are suffering because of inflation and unemployment.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav tweeted along similar lines and said that the BJP government’s budget actually exacerbates problems like unemployment and inflation. He said that the BJP has never catered to the interests of common people in almost a decade of its budgets, and will not do so even in the future. 

Jammu & Kashmir People’s Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti said that the Budget was similar to previous years. “Taxes are increased; money not being spent on welfare schemes and subsidies. Taxes are being collected for some crony capitalists and big businessmen. Public should benefit from taxes but it’s breaking their back,” she said.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Union Budget was presented with the assembly elections in 2023 and the 2024 parliamentary elections in mind, terming it “totally opportunistic and anti-people”. She said that the Budget doesn’t address unemployment. 

Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal pointed out the low budgetary allocations to Delhi, alleging a “step-motherly” treatment by the Union government. “The people of Delhi paid Rs 1.75 lakh crore in income tax last year. Out of that, only Rs 325 crore has been given to Delhi for development work. This is completely unjustified,” Kejriwal said.

He further said that the decrease in allocations for health and education is “unfortunate”. 

Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader Y. Sathish Reddy pointed out that allocations for major agriculture-related schemes have been cut substantially.  

Congress Says Budget ‘Callous’, Betrays Hopes of the Vast Majority of People

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram said that the Budget could not be more removed from reality and people’s “concerns about life, livelihood and the growing inequality between the rich and the poor”.

New Delhi: Hitting out at the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, senior Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram said that the Budget presented on Thursday could not have been more removed from reality and people’s “concerns about life, livelihood and the growing inequality between the rich and the poor”.

Despite unprecedented levels of joblessness in India, he said, the finance minister did not even mention the words “unemployment, poverty, inequality or equity” in her speech.

He also pointed out that given the GDP estimate of Rs 273,07,751 crore, the real GDP should have grown in double digits but both Sitharaman and the economic survey put the GDP growth at only 7%.

“Will the government explain?” he asked.

“Please note that both capital expenditure of the Union government and the effective capital expenditure are lower than the Budget Estimates. So, what drove growth in 2022-23? We know that private investment is down, exports are down and private consumption is stagnant. So, how does the government explain the 7% growth in the current year,” Chidambaram said, adding that if the government’s figures are to be believed, the next two quarterly growth rates may slide to only 4-4.5%.

“For the whole year, therefore, the quarterly GDP growth rate is sliding: 13.5, 6.3, 4.2 and 4.0%,” he said.

He compared the budgetary estimates and revised estimates of 2022-23 to say that the “government is not spending what was promised on key schemes”.

Chidambaram further lashed out at the government for not giving relief to common people by reducing fuel prices, “irrational GST rates”, cement, fertilizers, indirect cesses, etc. Further, he said that the tax slabs will only benefit a small number of people who have opted for the new tax regime.

“…making the new tax regime the default option is grossly unfair and will rob the ordinary taxpayer of the meagre social security that he may get under the old tax regime,” he said.

“Who has benefited from this Budget? Certainly, not the poor. Not the youth looking desperately for jobs. Not those who have been laid off. Not the bulk of the taxpayers. Not the homemaker. Not the thinking Indians who are shocked by the growing inequality, the rise of the number of billionaires and the wealth being accumulated in the hands of the 1% of the population. Certainly, not you,” he said.

He further said that the budget doesn’t acknowledge the economic crisis that the world is facing today, and the government should clarify what it would do if the global recession hits India.

“What kind of burdens will that place on the people who are suffering owing to inflation and unemployment? There were no answers provided either in the Economic Survey or in the Budget Speech. This is a callous Budget that has betrayed the hopes of the vast majority of the people,” he said. 

Also Read: Eight Charts to Make Sense of Budget 2023

Party leader Rahul Gandhi said the budget has no plans to create jobs, tackle price rises or stem inequality. He dubbed the Budget, which finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said was the first of the ‘Amrit Kaal’ (golden age), as ‘Mitr Kaal’ (age of government’s friends).

Earlier, Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh tweeted to say that the government spent much less than what was announced in the budget last year, and alleged that even this year, the Modi government is looking for “headline management”. 

“Last year’s Budget drew applause for allocation towards agriculture, health, education, MGNREGA & welfare of SCs. Today the reality is evident. Actual expenditure is substantially LOWER than budgeted. This is Modi’s OPUD strategy of headline management—Over Promise, Under Deliver,” he tweeted. 

FM Announces Stipends for 47 Lakh Youth, but No Allocation Made Under Apprenticeship Scheme

While the allocation under National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme in Budget Estimate 2023-24 is nil, a sum of Rs 348.99 crore has been set aside under Skill India Programme.

New Delhi: While finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Budget speech that a direct benefit transfer (DBT) pan-India National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme will be rolled out under which stipend will be provided to 47 lakh youth in three years, a look at the expenditure budget reveals that no amount has been budgeted under the scheme in FY 2023-2024.

Overall for the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), which covers all the skill development schemes, the Budget Estimate for FY 23 was Rs 393.75 crore but due to a much lower outgo, the Revised Estimate for FY23 was pegged at Rs 235.57 crore.

For the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, Rs 25.40 crore was budgeted in FY23 and the revised estimate was pegged at Rs 32.87 crore. However, under Demand No. 92, point 273.01 no allocation has been made under the scheme in the Budget Estimate for FY 24.

On the other hand, for the upcoming financial year, a sum of Rs 348.99 crore has been provided in the Budget Estimate under the head Skill India Programme. No allocation was made under this category earlier.

The stipend scheme has raised eyebrows as it comes just a year before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In her speech, Sitharaman spoke about a number of skilling initiatives which the government would introduce as part of PMKVY 4.0 over the next three years. She said these would include providing stipends to 47 lakh youth, setting up of Skill India Digital Platform and building 30 Skill India International Centres. “This will enable demand-based formal skilling, link eligible candidates with employers including MSMEs and facilitate access to entrepreneurship schemes.”

The Centre has also announced that it would be introducing on-the-job training across all short-term courses while launching industry-specific new age courses as part of the revamped PMKVY 4.0.