★ Acharya Pt. Prithwinath Pandey
Before the presentation of the Budget for the year 2022-23, it seemed that the ‘Modi-Government of New India’ would present a budget in the public interest, understanding the difficulties of the people, whereas the opposite appeared. Our readers should remember that these days, Narendra Modi has been continuously calling ‘red’ colour as ‘red alert’ and ‘khatron ki ghanti’ in his election campaign, that is absolutely correct; Because Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister of the ‘Modi-Government of New India’, used a tablet wrapped in a ‘red’ cloth to present the budget for the financial year 2022-23 on February 1, 2022, which was actually ‘Red alert’ and ‘khatare ki ghanti’ have been proved for the countrymen. The dishonest attitude of this government, kind to the industrialists and businessmen from the very beginning in the budget. There is such a thing for the people attached to the land that the budget should be called public interest. This is the reason that here the budget was announced, while there was turmoil in the stock market. Nifty has slipped 190 points from the upper level, while the Sensex continued to rise and fall.
You should remember that only a few months ago there was talk of crypto-currency circulation in the country, which has been prepared by the Reserve Bank of India. Now it’S impact is visible in this budget. This digital currency will be implemented from the coming financial year. It is not appropriate to tax 30℅ on this currency. Not only this, 1% TDS will also be charged on the transfer of virtual currency. If that currency is given as a gift to someone, then the tax to be levied on it will be paid by the person to whom that currency is given as a gift. This budget includes the introduction of digital currency for the first time; But what will be it’S form, is still unknown. Here there is also a apprehension that whether the country’S basic currency ‘Rupee’ is being taken out of circulation behind the introduction of digital currency. We absolutely cannot deny it; Because that ‘black economic-political history of the country is a witness that the autocratic Narendra Modi had announced ‘notebandi’ without taking the countrymen into confidence; Because “Modi hai to mumkin hai”.
In view of the impending elections, there was every possibility of a change in the income tax slab, which did not prove to be true. On the hope of the middle class, the so-called government has done ‘tusharpat’. There has been talk of giving exemption in tax on goods related to electricity. Customs duty on jewellery, reduced to 5%, while customs duty on artificial jewelery has been kept at Rs 400 per kg; No discount is given. Decreasing the value of leather goods, shoes, slippers, clothes, mobile phone charger, mobile phone camera lens, transformer etc. is in the same way as making hair of the dead body is said to lighten its weight. On the other hand, headphones and earphones will be expensive.
The ‘Modi-Government of New India’ is patting its own rhinoceros back by claiming that its budget for not increasing the tax is historic. The more than 100 percent increase on petrol, diesel, cooking gas, edible oil, which has been done by this so-called cruel government, has completely stolen its eyes by reducing its GST-rate. Now from October 1, 2022, an excise duty of Rs 2 per liter will be charged on fuel without ethanol blending in the country. Thus, from October 1, petrol without blades will become expensive in the country. This is because this government has come to know that the government wants to earn big money by imposing additional excise duty on fuel. Now the question is whether oil companies will sell petrol-diesel without blades or look for alternatives. The companies themselves will bear the excise duty or else they will put that extra burden on the shoulders of the general public. Modi’S cruel vision, which has been a cheap and easy way to escape the rain for the poor and middle classes, is also not able to tolerate it. That is why the customs duty on umbrellas has been reduced to 20% of this budget. This will increase the price of umbrellas being imported from China and other countries; At the same time, the tax exemption on parts for making umbrellas has been abolished.
Infact, the so-called government is looking ‘disabled’ in the word ‘meaningless’ coined by itself, only because of the way in which this ruthless government has been crushed in the priceless mill for the last seven years, its Autocracy is clearly visible.
What universal scheme this government is showing in this budget for our health, it is not known far and wide. Lakhs of our countrymen have been killed in the Karona-disaster and even today thousands of people are being killed every day, even after that no facilities have been arranged for proper treatment in this budget.
There is no meaningful plan in the said budget for the unemployed of our country. There are lakhs of vacancies in government service sectors in the country today. Our students, who are agitating for jobs, are eating sticks and lathis of the police of this tyrannical government every day. Why has there not been a budget on this? It has been said to provide 16 lakh jobs in this budget; But that employment is ‘seller of pakoda fry’ or ‘contract’ or it is a jumla to give employment to two crores per annum. The outlay has been cut in ‘MNREGA’. Surprise! The Finance Minister is telling it the outlook for the coming twenty-five years. It simply means that Narendra Modi has eaten crow’s tongue to remain immortal, so that for twenty five years, ‘Bharat’ remains a burden on the country, breaking the chair of ‘New India’.
The ‘New India’ Modi-Government which had started the ‘Namami Gange’ project to clean the Ganges water and ultimately failed, the same government is now under the guise of its budget to start organic farming on the banks of river Ganga. The thing is saying. Not only this, Nirmala Sitharaman has asked to purchase 1,000 lakh metric tonnes of paddy in the next financial year, so that more than 1 crore farmers will be benefited, while the truth is that at this time there is so much rigging in the paddy purchase center in Uttar Pradesh and the irregularity is visible that many farmers have not yet been registered for the purchase of paddy. Not only this, out of those who have been registered, there are a large number of farmers who are worried about getting their paddy purchased. Wherever honest Naib Tehsildars and S.D.M. etc. officers are duty-bound, justice is being done sooner or later to the farmers, the remaining ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is trustworthy. Although this time 1 lakh 23 thousand crore rupees has been earmarked for agricultural development, yet not a single plan related to land is visible. The government remains silent on ‘Kisan Samman Nidhi’. Why has there not been a clear minimum support price in the budget for the purchase of seeds, fertilisers, irrigation, food grains to the farmer?
By slashing corporate-sector taxes, this visionary government has proved that it is bowing down to upper-class dominance. This is the reason why this outlay has been reduced to corporate-tax, which was earlier 18, has now been reduced to 15. Not only this, the corporative surcharge has also been reduced, which was 12% earlier, has now been reduced to 7%.
This government keeps only two types of glasses :– First, for the upper class and second, for the lower class. Most of the lower classes are in good condition; But only for doing politics of power, he seems to be a little too kind and giving the whims of ‘Hindu-Muslim’ to the middle class and that innocent middle class licking the opium of the so-called hateful religions, ‘Modi-Modi’ has been doing; What more do opiums need?
Even in this budget Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has neglected ‘senior citizens’. While presenting the budget for the previous year, she had said-– We are exempting senior citizens from income tax; But his condition is fixed above 75 years. Now the question is, what is the number of government servants at the age of 75 years? How many of those servants are seventy-five-year-olds receiving taxable pensions? It has only fooled the country. The Government has had a cruel eyes on the interest received from the Provident Fund. Till now the government has been charging ‘tax’ on the interest of Rs 2.5 lakh. In this budget also everything is same as before. Sitharaman’s eyes water are dead. We used to think that the status of senior citizens would be determined from the age of 60 years, so that in reality, from where the ‘senior citizen’ age-class’ begins, they would be exempted from income tax.
In the outlay, the length of National Highways will be expanded up to 25,000 km in the year 2022-23; But it was not told how much toll tax would be collected from the general public for plying on those routes. In the same way, a plan has been told to run 400 ‘Vande Bharat’ trains in three years; But what policy will the government adopt to loosen the pockets of the passengers, even here it is currently silent.
It is noteworthy that this is the tenth outlay of ‘New India’s Modi-Government’ and Nirmala Sitharaman’s fourth; But at the economic level, the immaturity of this government is continuously visible. The truth is that in that immaturity the so called government has been only looking after the interest of its political party ‘Bharatiya Janata Party’. It’S current budget is live, in which a total of Rs 1,46,498 crore will be given to the Yogi Adityanath government of the Bharatiya Janata Party from the central tax. 15 thousand 3 crore rupees will be given to the said government from the Finance Commission. Not only this, he will be given Rs 13 thousand crore for ‘Jeevan Mission’, Rs 16 thousand three hundred crore for road highway, Rs 957 crore for water resources and Rs 6,241 crore for holistic education. In this way, the election of Uttar Pradesh is being fought as the nose of Modi, due to which this money distribution is seen to lure the voters of Uttar Pradesh.
In the end, the question is, from where will the government bring funds to make the Sabzbagh shown in this budget practical? Obviously, the blood of the general public will be sucked out by multiple means, as it has been sucked for the last seven years.
(All rights reserved – Acharya Pt. Prithwinath Pandey, Prayagraj; February 2, 2022 A. D.)
