Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri criticised the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, and said it neither offered relief to the middle class nor did it have any solution to the various problems plaguing the country, like unemployment, price rise, farmers’ livelihoods and high fuel prices.
“There is no increase in the income tax rebate structure or changes on taxes on petroleum products, while subsidies for food and fertiliser have been reduced drastically,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Alagiri said while the BJP came to power on the promise of creating 2 crore jobs every year, there has been no scheme announced to create said jobs. He said the Railways was being privatised,and jobs were being cut and that more than 1.25 crore people had applied for 35,000 vacancies in the Railways. Mr. Alagiri said data from the Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed that nearly 20 crore jobs had been lost.
“When 60 crore jobs have to be created, only 40 crore have been created. But the Finance Minister says 60 lakh jobs will be created in the next five years,” he said.
“It does not seem the economy has become better now than when the pandemic hit us. Under Dr. Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, India clocked 9% growth for three continuous years and recorded 8% growth for a few years. But now the economy is going in the opposite direction,” he said.
Mr. Alagiri further added that the Indian economy had lost stability and only a few businessmen were amassing assets under the BJP rule. “We are unable to see growth for everyone else. It makes it very clear as to who the BJP is working for,” he said.
