Union Budget is a hugely disappointing budget. The Congress led UPA
government has betrayed the people. It has failed to live up to the
expectations and sensitivities of the people. It lacks reforms and
major initiatives. Fiscal deficit at 5.1% is very high. It is
inflationary budget. Rs.1,00,000 crore additional burden on the people.
With the increase in service tax and excise duties, prices will go up
and the common man will be the worst hit. Virtually everything under
the sky has been brought under service tax’a ambit. It is horrible to
have service tax on education.
The Indian economy is passing through challenging times. The sentiment with
regard to the economy is low. The presentation of the Union Budget
2012-13 was a historic opportunity for the Finance Minister to take
corrective steps. What was needed were leadership, clarity and
cohesiveness in the UPA alliance. All these are lacking. The Finance
Minister wasted a historic opportunity, by presenting a non-Budget. His
Budget is an accounting statement but not a policy enhancing document.
It fails to lift the sentiment of the economy.
White paper on black money and
corruption is long over due. Disinvestment target was lowered to 30,000
crore as against the target of 40,000 crore for 2011-12. The actual
achievement for last year was only Rs.12,000 crore. God knows whether
any disinvestment will at all happen this year given the UPA’s
precarious health!
The Rs.20,000 exemption in Income Tax limit is no solace in the backdrop of backbreaking inflation. It is nowhere near the exemption limit recommended by the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Finance. Much more was expected to provide relief
to the salaried class of employees.Dr.
JP speaking (in telugu) on the Union Budget 2012-13. He described the
budget as a mixed bag and added that we cannot end poverty and promote
equity by pursuing populist policies and vote bank politics. We need
quantum leaps in agriculture, education, healthcare and jobs.
Save Dissent to Save Democracy THE rising instances of physical violence and threats against political opponents and the inability to accept dissent must raise huge concerns amongst all of us who see democracy as perhaps the really stellar achievement since Independence. AAP’s attack on BJP headquarters and acts of arson committed under the very noses of their elite leadership; the attacks on Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Gujarat in the last two days; the recent manhandling of the caretaker of journalist Siddharth Varadarajan’s house by some garden variety thugs; and the violence and threats meted out regularly to their political opponents by political parties is surely deplorable and condemnable. This is a fatally flawed trend which will destroy the very foundations of our democratic institutions if not pushed back with all the strength and condemnation that the civil society can mobilise. Replaying the past To begin with, it must be clarified that we should ...
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