People's Democracy

A NUMBER of organisations have condemned the BJP-led NDA government’s budget 2001-2002 as a bonanza for the multinational corporations (MNCs) and Indian big business houses, while the working class and common people at large have been hit hard.

According to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the budget has showered on the monopoly houses and MNCs a huge concession of Rs 5,500 crore in direct taxes, while imposing a huge burden of Rs 4,677 crore on the working class and common people by enhancing the excise duties in the deceptive name of "rationalisation." At the same time reduction in customs duties on many heads, to the tune of Rs 2,128 crore, will open the floodgates for foreign goods and adversely affect the Indian industries which are facing sickness and closures on a big scale.

The concessions given to speculative capital, by fixing a higher cap on investment the foreign institutional investors (FIIs), will promote speculation rather than investment in productive capacities. On the other hand, allowing foreign investors to have 49 per cent stake in Indian companies will pave the way for a much greater foreign control over Indian industries and practically provoke more foreign take-over of Indian companies instead of investments in new industrial ventures. Nor will it add to employment generation or economic growth. The liberal tax concessions granted to the food processing units will be pocketed essentially by the foreign companies who are already dominating this sector in India. Whatever steps have been taken to liberalise the debt market and the capital market are all going to benefit the MNCs and enable them to garner more resources from India, much to the detriment of Indian industries.

The pace of decontrol of petroleum, sugar, fertiliser and drug prices in the name of withdrawal of administered price mechanism will push up the prices of these essential commodities, affecting the vast section of common people. The rise in postal tariff and also in the prices of various public utility services, in the name of introduction of user charges, will impose further burdens on the common people.

Small-scale industries have so long been contributing substantially to the country’s economic growth and also to export performance despite all problems and assaults. They will be worst hit by the pro-MNC and pro-monopoly thrust of the budget proposals. The dereservation of most of the items from the small scale sector’s exclusive preserve and withdrawal of protection will enable the MNCs and some Indian big business houses to make aggressive inroads in this sector, further leading to widespread closure and sickness of small scale units and huge rise in joblessness.

The budget did not say anything about employment generation in the economy. It is more concerned with protecting the share market than with creating provisions for new jobs for the younger people. Paper schemes such as the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh mean practically nothing for the common people. On the other hand, the budget announced an arrogant move to cut jobs in government departments at the rate of 2 per cent per annum and also render a much bigger number of employees surplus. This will lead to a loss of 66,000 jobs in one year.

In its anxiety for so called agricultural "reforms," the NDA budget has provided nothing for the landless agricultural labourers who represent an overwhelming majority of the rural folk reeling under poverty line. Much has been talked about the Kisan Credit Card which benefited mostly the richer classes in rural India. In the name of reforms in agriculture, the government seeks to benefit the rural rich only. The self-financing insurance scheme for agricultural workers for a pension of Rs 100 after 60 years of age is nothing but a crude joke on the poorest strata of the population. In the name of managing the food economy in a better way, the government’s major thrust is on managing the ‘surplus’ while the below-poverty-line people are not getting enough to eat. The increase in the sugar price in the public distribution system, even for the people below poverty line, also exposes the anti-people bias of the government.

By repealing the Sick Industrial Companies Act (SICA) by a stroke of pen, the finance minister has smashed all hopes of revival of sick industrial units, besides legitimising the foul game of the employers to gain fortunes by turning their industrial units sick and throwing out their workers on to the street. The demands of the trade unions to make the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) revival-oriented has thus been curtly rejected by the finance minister at the behest of mill owners.

The tall claims of recovery of non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banking sector is nothing but a hoax since the NPAs have already reached the colossal amount of Rs 64,000 crore, signifying speedier generation of NPAs compared to recovery. In fact the increase in the NPAs symbolises the unholy nexus of the big corporates with the mandarins in the finance ministry. It is these same big corporate houses who are suggesting privatisation of banks to check the NPAs!

On the plea of boosting exports, fantastic concessions in the forms of a longer tax-holiday, etc, have been granted to the companies in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and Special Economic Zones (SEZs), despite the fact that the EPZs and SEZs contribute very little to the country’s overall export performance. In these zones, the companies are being allowed to ignore all labour laws and exploit the labour in an inhuman manner.

While succumbing to the pressure of the IMF-World Bank and also of Indian big business, the budget has declared a war against workers. The announcement to modify Chapter V-B of the Industrial Disputes Act to allow closure, lay-off and retrenchment in the industrial units employing up to 1000 workers, without the government’s permission, is tantamount to giving the employers the right to hire and fire in the sectors covering 90 per cent of the industrial workforce. The freedom to employ contract workers even in permanent jobs, by a suitable amendment to the Contract Labour Act, exposes the naïve design of the government to casualise the entire industrial workforce, pushing down their wages and services conditions. The government’s claim, and also of the business houses, that these measures will lead to more employment generation is totally ridiculous and baseless; this is confirmed even by the ILO in its World Employment Report.

The reduction in the rate of interest on small savings by 1.5 per cent is another attack on the vital interests of working class and middle class people whose small savings will now fetch them lesser returns. The interest rate on the provident fund is also being curtailed in an arbitrary manner.

The government’s proposal to review the pensions will drastically curtail the pensionary benefits of the central and state government employees who will have to resist this cruel attempt of the central government.

The privatisation and commercialisation of education in India, as visualised by the budget proposals, will make higher education unaffordable for the poor people and turn it into a privilege of the handful of rich people in the country. The so-called Shiksha Sahayog Yojana is nothing but an eyewash to cover up this game.

The decision to close down 8 public sector units and privatise 27 undertakings in the current year itself to garner Rs 10,000 crore, as declared in the budget, signals the government’s adamant move to sell out the public sector undertakings (PSUs) at throw-away prices to the MNCs and private sector tycoons and hand them over the public sector’s huge valuable assets on a platter. The BALCO case is the glaring example. The budget’s thrust on disinvestment seeks to ultimately liquidate the entire public sector that has contributed immensely in developing a self-reliant economy in the country.

While the finance minister acted as a fiscal terrorist last year, this year he can be characterised as a fiscal mafia. The entire budget will in no way check the slowdown of Indian economy. Rather the budget proposals have been meticulously articulated to ensure larger profit to the MNCs and big businesses even in a recessionary situation. Last year, despite the decline in net sales and turnover, big business houses and MNCs were able to raise their profit level considerably. This year’s budget seeks to sustain, rather speed up, that process. The budgetary measures are destined to slow down or stagnate the economy --- aggravating poverty, joblessness and destitution, instead of augmenting growth.

The CITU is of the opinion that the utterly anti-people policies underlined in the budget proposals have to be resolutely opposed. It thinks the NDA government is out to sacrifice the national interests at the altar of foreign monopolies and ruin the national economy. It was with this perception that the CITU joined the nationwide Protest Day, by holding demonstrations and rallies all over India on March 2, as was called by the National Platform of Mass Organisations against the central budget proposals for 2001-2002.

Through another statement, the central executive committee of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) strongly condemned the heinous employment-killing exercise resorted to by the union budget 2001-2002. This too is being done by a government which, only two years back, promised one crore jobs every year.

Even though the Economic Survey for 2000-2001 noted that not a single job was created in the outgoing year, this was as if not enough for the government. The budget 2001-2002 went even further to propose a 10 per cent reduction of jobs in the government sector. The budget proposal for winding-up the recruitment board for the banking services is another job-lynching exercise, blatantly written across the whole budget. The budget’s proposal to amend the Industrial Disputes Act will provide the employers a weapon to fire their employees at their sweet will, further intensifying the already grim unemployment crisis and worsening the exploitation of the working people including the employed youth.

The central executive committee of the DYFI has urged the youth of the country to rise and take to the path of struggle against this job-killing budget proposed by the anti-youth NDA government at the centre. It is a government with which capitulation to its imperialist masters has become a deeply ingrained habit. It is a government that refuses to be accountable to the masses and feels gratified in fulfilling the dictates of the imperialist finance capital and Indian big business.

The Students Federation of India (SFI) has described the NDA government’s budget 2001-2002 as nothing but a combination of hollow promises and naked onslaught on the people. As far as education is concerned, the most marked character of the budget is its assault on university and higher education.

The SFI has pointed out that the finance minister has slashed Rs 848.48 crore in the university and higher education sector alone. According to the revised estimate, Rs 2591.70 were spent on this account last year, but the proposal for the coming year is only Rs 1642.72 crore.

The NDA government’s most vocal claim for the education sector is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for universalisation of elementary education, to be achieved by the year 2010. The SSA was announced last year and Rs 350 crore were allocated for it. But the Vajpayee government spent only Rs 100 crore on this account last year; this shows its lack of sincerity regarding the SSA.

According to estimates, Rs 70,000 crore must be spent during the ninth five year plan to achieve universalisation of elementary education. This means an expenditure of Rs 14,000 crore every year. But Sinha has proposed a meagre Rs 500 crore on this account for the coming year. This underlines the fact that the SSA is an impractical and ridiculous claim of the NDA government and universalisation of elementary education will remain unfulfilled under the BJP-led rule.

The government’s second most vocal claim is about strengthening technology education. It is a hoax. According to the revised estimate, Rs 505 crore were spent for the IITs. And the proposal for the coming year is only Rs 477 crore, which is less by Rs 28 crore. The assistance from the University Grants Commission (UGC) for technology education also has been slashed from Rs 28 crore last year to Rs 10 crore this year.

The government’s withdrawal from education expenditure is further emphasised by the announcement about promoting the private sector in higher and technology education. This is a dangerous policy that will further destroy the intellectual self-reliance of the country.

In essence, the budget 2001-2002 is anti-national and anti-poor. It is against the universalisation of elementary education and promotes commercialisation of education. Hence the SFI urged upon the students community to actively participate in the countrywide demonstrations on March 2 to protest against the budget.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) also condemned the anti-peasant, anti-people and pro-MNC direction of the union budget. According to the AIKS, the proposal to restrict and withdraw the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other agencies from the procurement of agricultural products on minimum support price will ruin the peasantry, dismantle the public distribution system and destroy our food security. After all the quantitative restrictions on import of agricultural produce are withdrawn by April 1, in accordance with the WTO stipulation, it will only help the multinationals in capturing the Indian market and thus destroying Indian agriculture. The proposal to withdraw or reduce the subsidy on fertilisers and other agricultural inputs, hand-over of power and irrigation projects to the private sector, slashing of job opportunities --- all this will add to the misery of the peasantry and other toiling masses.

It was with this view that the AIKS joined the nationwide protest actions on March 2, called for by the NPMO, and is preparing for the massive picketing of central government offices on March 29-30, in cooperation with six other organisations of peasants and agricultural workers. (INN)