MNREGA promises rural people to have work for 100 days and with a pay of Rs 100 per day. A person gets Rs 10,000 under this act. The Rural population according to the 2011 census in India is approximately Rs 60 crores. So, the total amount needed to implement MNREGA in rural areas is Rs 60 crores *10,000 = 6,00,000 crores. These might be approximate numbers but, the gap is nearly 5,00,000 crores, in my view, this is not a better allocation. Rs 3 lakh crores are allocated for MSME sectors to take loans for kick-starting the production. Any person with common sense will understand simple Demand-Supply Economics. If people (consumers) have money to buy products then automatically there will be demand for the products which will automatically increase production. So, giving money to lower section people directly might help in boosting the economy and kickstarting the production of MSMEs because lower class people will not save money they will spend on essential commodities. What exactly we want in this situation is spending done by lower class (Economy wise) Indians. So, coming to that 3 lakh crores central Government will not be taking the burden it is just acting like a guarantee for the loans.
Rs 90,000 crores allocated for DISCOMs which is again facilitating them through the loans from NBFCs which is not real money. In this pandemic, Discoms are left at loss due to lack of power consumption by Industries that were shut down due to lockdown. So once DISCOMs are given these loans they can distribute power again but obviously, the charges will be high because DISCOMs should pay the loan back.
Privatization of Coal Mines, the Defence Sector, etc is a very bad step because 60% of the power generation in India is generated from Thermal power which is from Coal. Coal is purchased by the Government from coal mines like Coal India, Singareni mines, etc. which are actually running in profit even after selling 70% of the coal to the Government for subsidized price and selling the other 30% for the profits to private entities. I think Privatisation should be done for the Comfort of Citizens, not for the Profits of Industrialists and corporations. So I oppose Commercial mining and support Captive mining which actually was struck away. There are many of these kinds of loopholes in the budget. Actually, this kind of budget will show very long-term benefits, but at present, we need some immediate measures. So totally MoF failed in reaching people’s expectations in allocations.
Previously the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressed the nation on 26 March to announce an Economic Relief Package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore to aid the citizens amid Coronavirus Outbreak. The nation is under s lockdown of 21 days till 14 April in this fight against COVID-19 and this lockdown has affected every group of people, amongst which the economically weaker section is hardest hit. FM has announced PM Garib Kalyan Scheme will entail Rs 1.7 lakh crore and it will include both cash transfer and food security.
PM Gareeb Kalyan Yojana: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Everyone under this scheme will get 5 kg of wheat/rice for free in addition to what they are already getting. We will also give one kg of one choice of pulse to each household under this scheme for the next three months. They can take it in two instalments also,” but no such thing is implemented till today.
Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Yojana will include Rs 50 lakh health insurance per health care worker for three months; here also the announcement is done but no implementations so far. Women Jan Dhan account holders will get Rs 500 per month for the next 3 months. 20 crore women Jan Dhan Account holders will be benefited from this, but no one knows how many women benefited from it.
There are two onion seasons in India, one starting from November and another starting from January to June every year. From June to November, it is cultivated sporadically only. And it takes 80 to 150 days to harvest onions. So, it is a known fact onion will be scarce from October to December every year. Due to rain, the lean season harvest between June and November was affected. All these factors are as transparent as glass. And as the finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman should have known this and should have initiated to import onions in August – September itself. If she has done that the prices would have ruled below Rs 40 per kg now. So, like other matters, she has failed in this too. But instead of accepting the failure of the government, she has commented and the opposition has rightly rebuked her.
She has also said in her reply that enough storage facilities are not available and the government is planning to build enough storage. Usually, such statements are stated during scarcity. It is a known fact that a huge volume of vegetables is wasted in India because of the non-availability of enough cold storage units. So, she should immediately try to build cold storage units from both the public sector and private sector. Unfortunately, she made various announcements but never ever stressed implementations.
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