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10.02.2021 RSG/RJS Uncorrected/Not for Publication 363 1859 hours SHRI DAYANIDHI MARAN (CHENNAI CENTRAL): Sir, thank you for this opportunity. Before I start, I would like to quote a Thirrukural. “Allalpattu aatradha azhudha Kanneerandro Selvathai Theikkum Padai” Its Tamil meaning is: Oru Arasanin kodumai porukka mudiyamal makkal sindhum kanneer andha aatchiyai azhikkum padai karuviyagum. Sir, I know I have to say it in English also. “When the people suffer and cry unable to bear the aggressive suppression by the rulers, their tears alone have the powers to be turned into an army and defeat them.” (1900/RBN/RPS) 1900 hours (Shri N.K. Premachandran in the Chair) I think this will be very good for the present time. Our great leader Arignar Anna said, ‘Tax the rich and pat the poor’. But what is happening today is the reverse. The Government is taxing the poor and patting the rich. The FM’s Budget for this year was much awaited with much hopes. In the wake of unprecedented global emergency, the Indian economy which was already heading towards tailwinds saw unprecedented collapse and the nation witnessed a humanitarian crisis of unforeseen proportions. The shutdown of the economy sent lakhs of workers on the long walk home and many perished. The incomes of silent classes saw deep cuts and a lot of people lost their jobs. The livelihood and aspirations of crores of people have been snuffed out. It is said that more than 30 per cent of our MSMEs have reportedly been closed down permanently. Critics fear that the true numbers may be much higher. Estimates say that 6.47 crore Indians dropped out of the labour force, of which 22.6 per cent were women. Critics fear the true numbers may be higher. In such grim circumstances, the nation was waiting for a revival package that would give us a shot in the arm. Of course, the Finance Minister and the Minister of State for Finance come frequently in the television, like snake charmers. You might have seen snake charmers on the roads. They have a mongoose and a snake. The snake charmers would keep on saying that the mongoose is going to fight the snake and will kill the snake, but it will never 10.02.2021 RSG/RJS Uncorrected/Not for Publication 364 happen. The same thing is happening here. The Finance Minister and the Minister of State for Finance were just re-wording and re-allocating the funds which were there. But in reality, nothing much had come down to the people. This Budget was touted as an unprecedented one. Of course, it is true. It is an unprecedented let-down Budget. As far as the common man is concerned, once again he is left with nothing but empty words and unfulfilled promises. There is no income tax concession. During this pandemic, temples were closed, churches were closed and the mosques were closed. The middle-class people, to which section we all belong to, were expecting some tax concessions. They lost their jobs and are sitting at home. They were expecting some concession from the Government. In this Budget, there is not a single word from the Finance Minister on reducing the taxes, which would have been good news to the middle-class. There is no clarification from the Government on the sector-specific revival packages. I feel they think that one size fits all and that they can just announce it. Look at the aviation, tourism and hospitality industries. They are the worst hit. I know so many people who are in the tourism industry. They have virtually gone to the dogs and have closed down. Mr. Chairman, Sir, you are from Kerala. It is mainly dependent on tourism. Due to pandemic, the entire tourism industry has been adversely affected. What has the Government done for that? They have built resorts, and hotels. The only income of travel agents is the commission that they get on booking tickets. They are literally on the roads. For nearly 11 months, they have not earned anything, not even one rupee. This is how it was. Probably, the Government did not want to touch the aviation sector and the tourism sector because if they have to infuse funds, then they have to infuse funds into Air India also. That means, Air India might revive and it may not be sold. Maybe that is why they have not done it. Look at the construction industry. In a hurry, they said that all the construction work should stop. As a result, all the construction workers had to walk for thousands of kilometres. They say that they do not have the data bank of how many construction workers are there. Till now they do not have the data of how many construction workers, the migrant workers, who died walking back home. Maybe they remained without food. 10.02.2021 RSG/RJS Uncorrected/Not for Publication 365 Incomes are down and the common man is feeling the pinch everywhere. But they refuse to reduce the rates of GST. This is the time they should come forward and reduce the rates of GST on all products. On the contrary, they hiked the excise duty on petrol. Earlier, for the first time, because of the pandemic, the global oil prices crashed to 23 dollars. But they never decreased the price. Instead, this is the only Government which increased the excise duty and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prices of fuel shot up. In 2014 the NDA went on the roads when the price of petrol was Rs. 70. (1905/SRG/SPS) At that time, the price of crude was over USD 140 per barrel. Today, petrol is at Rs. 89 per litre and not a word from them! At least they can reduce the Excise Duty. Every time they quote the UPA. Why can they not quote the UPA now? Sir, we are in the middle of extreme tensions with China, but your Budget barely even broached the situation and the expenses that will arise out of it. The figures on defence spending barely show any change. We are worried. With Rs. 3,47,088 crore it is only marginally higher than Rs. 3,43,822 crore in the current year. What is this? We are in a war situation. We have to give financial strength, we have to make sure that armies are well armoured and are able to protect our country. Do you take the lives of our jawans very simply? Do you think just by quoting Thiruvalluvar before them, we can win wars? We have to fund them. I am very surprised that they are not funding the Army the way it needs. The budget allocation for the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has been slashed by 8.5 per cent in 2021-22. The flagship PM-KISAN scheme, meant to provide income support to farmers has a 13 per cent drop in this budget. It is Rs. 10,000 crore lower than last year’s initial allocation. You keep claiming that you will double farmers’ income, but how do you propose to do this? What is stopping you from implementing the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan report? To top it all, the farmers are already suffering. You increased the cess on diesel on which the farmers depend. I should say that with all due respect I saw hon. Prime Minister delivering a farewell speech for Ghulam Nabi Azad. Ghulam Nabi Azad is the Leader of Opposition belonging to the Congress Party. The PM did shed his tears. I saw a lot of compassion because we never thought the PM had compassion. Why can you not have the same 10.02.2021 RSG/RJS Uncorrected/Not for Publication 366 compassion, Mr. Prime Minister, towards the farmers? It is going to be three months, it is going to be 90 days the farmers are suffering. The slogan of Swacha Bharat is there, but they are defecating in the open. We need that Prime Minister. Can we see that Prime Minister? I want Mr. Modi, our Prime Minister to have the same compassion that he showed for the Opposition Leader, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Rajya Sabha. You just go to the Delhi borders, meet the farmers and resolve the issue. You have touted the health expenditure set out in the budget as a game changer. They called the health budget as a game changer. For the very first time, the FM proudly claimed that health budget is increased by 137 per cent from Rs. 94,452 crore to Rs. 2,23,846 crore in the next year. The devil is in the details. Let us go and add up. You have simply added the one-time cost of the vaccination programme which is Rs. 35,000 crore, with the funds allocated for drinking water and sanitation programme. The Finance Commission’s grant to the States for water and sanitation and health is around Rs. 49,214 crore. The real estimate for 2021-22 is only a little below Rs. 75,000 crore. If you take away all these other funds which is lesser, technically the funds allocated to the health sector is lesser than what was allocated in the previous year which was Rs. 82,445 crore. You have provided Rs. 35,000 crore for vaccines. Who are these companies that are benefiting from your spending? Have you used any of the Government infrastructure to help produce vaccine? I request hon. Finance Minister to come up with the forensic audit of these companies.

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