Chennai: Contending that the tax proposals in the Union Budget are regressive, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa termed the Budget “lacking flavour” and “failing to meet the higher expectations of the people.”
“This Budget lacks flavour as it does not have any specific announcements of schemes which would have enthused different segments including the states. It also does not speak of the status of implementation of many schemes announced last year and the year before. The people of the state of Tamil Nadu had higher expectations, which were not met,” she said.
The AIADMK supremo also took a dig at the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadi Yojana under which 3,000 new medical stores selling generic medicines are to be set up as being “very similar to the Amma Marunthagam Scheme launched by my government.” Just a day ago, Union minister of state for environment Prakash Javadekar who was in the city said the state government took credit for all the subsidies and aid provided by the Centre for schemes like one rupee rice per kilo scheme, Amma Marunthagam and relief for the flood affected.
“However, on the whole, the tax proposals in the Budget are regressive – there are direct tax concessions amounting to Rs 1,060 crore mostly due to corporate income tax concessions, while indirect taxes worth Rs 20,670 crore have been levied, which come on top of the periodic increases in central excise levies on petroleum products which have seen an overall increase in yield of more than 90 per cent in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year as per the Economic Survey.
This is a regressive approach which cannot be supported,” she stated reacting to the Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley earlier on Monday.
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is a welcome initiative: She said the emphasis on agriculture and rural income were ‘welcome’ but asserted that doubling of farm income in five years, a ‘laudable’ objective, should be done in real terms. “The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is a welcome initiative but the allocation of Rs 5,500 crore appeared grossly inadequate,” Jayalalithaa said.
The increased outlay for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana also responds to the request she has made to the PM to ensure speedy completion of approved projects in the state, she added.
The launch of the National Rural Digital Literacy Mission, she said, was recognition of her government’s free laptop scheme for school and college students, aimed at bridging the digital divide.
She hailed the announcement to provide LPG connections to poor families and said her government took up the scheme for distribution of fans, mixies and grinders to reduce domestic drudgery. She urged the Centre to ensure that states like Tamil Nadu which already had sizeable coverage under LPG connections were not left out under the proposed scheme.
She requested the Centre to converge the new health protection scheme with that of Tamil Nadu’s, as this would not only enable smoother rollout of the Central initiative but also reduce overlap and administrative burden.
