By Krishna Jha
It is time to take account of the damages, and the repairs. The year of ruination with its pandemic, uprooting of the almost entire toiling masses, horror advent of four labour codes limiting the entire gamut of labour laws, each one won after blood soaked struggles of the working class, and finally the three farm laws that brutally slash the farmers rights and come as the extreme step in the packaging of the era that signals a new turn, despite the fact that the basics with all its negativity remains unchanged. The gap between the rich and poor keep widening.
It is obvious from the budget presented that purpose is not recovery from the crisis that is hollowing out the economy. Last year when the pandemic was looming large not only taking lives at an unforeseen rate, but even those remaining also had to live under the same ultimate threat, there was no succour offered. It was because the ‘fiscal conservatism’ continued unabetted. It remained within the same limits of expenditure with little over 13.4 percent in spite of the howling deprivation. This extra bit was nowhere near meeting the needs that the masses suffered without.
Surprisingly, despite the overall crisis, there were the stock markets that kept blossoming. The indices reached heights as never before. There were the companies standing at the top, taking their market wealth to Rs 3,00,000 crore or 40 billion dollars. The central banks stood to pump in more liquidity to help the few soar. The grounds were getting extremely fertile for the finance capital to move up as it had been classically defined. The joining hands of the banks and the corporate leading to record high in share market signalled the maturing up of the finance in few hands. The measures like loan moratorium and guaranteed credit schemes also came to help the soaring of the corporates. They helped in promoting their profits and reduce their debts.
The liquidity that came to aid the few could have gone to rescue the vast suffering masses, but it found its way somewhere else. It was not investment that could be the point of interest offering jobs at least with the minimum wages. It was also not to help improve the purchasing capacity of the common masses and also not in providing the essentials, since production interests have faded in the glare of share market. Human welfare came last in the ladder of interest. Hence the apathy to improve health care, initiatives towards dismantling of the public distribution system, bringing education to the bottom level, and finally crumbling the democratic system itself.
So far as revenue base is concerned, several decisions taken in the year of 2019 had their serious impact on it. The sharp slashing of corporate tax and the implementation of GST were some of them. The process of disinvestment also could not fetch the expected results. So far as support steps are concerned, government spending has been estimated on the MGNREGA as Rs 1,11,500crore as compared with the budgeted 61,500 crore. In 2019-20, the actual spending was Rs 71687 crore. With minimum wages, it helped every one needing support to survive. Among them were even school teachers who lost their jobs, small shop keepers and also petty producers apart from the workers from the industrial units that were locked out. In the financial year of 2021-22, the demand for work has gone up to 53 percent higher than the last year. At least 35 million unemployed have applied this year, which reveals that the economy is still in crisis, and yet the MGNREGA budget has been sharply slashed. Same is done about the food subsidies.
The rate of unemployment has gone up drastically as by December, at least twelve million adult workers have been thrown out of the labour force. In the formal sector too, unemployment has gone up. Then there is the consumer price inflation. Unusual rise in prices has caused consumer price inflation and lead to further slowing down in investment which may add to rise in unemployment rate. Also there could be lowering of the wages which in turn would cut into the purchasing capacity of the vast masses. Situation is explosive, what with all the catastrophic policies, like the farm laws leading to pauperisation of not only farmers, but almost the annihilation of the entire starving lot.
It is an age of dangerous speculations foretelling the end of a system and beginning of a new one. (IPA Service)