THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance minister Dr T.M. Thomas Isaac said that the conservative approach of the Union Budget would seriously curtail welfare spending. “The Budget proposals are too inadequate to tackle the recessionary trends that have been set in motion by demonetisation drive,” Isaac told the media here on Wednesday. “Jaitley has taken pride in the fact that he had kept the fiscal deficit at 3.2 percent. But such conservatism will worsen the stagnant impulses that curse through the country at the moment,” he said. The total expenditure estimated for 2017-18 (Rs 21.5 lakh crore) translates into a mere six percent increase from the revised expenditure in the current fiscal (Rs 20.1 lakh crore). “Even this growth has been premised on the assumption that tax collection would grow by 12.6 percent,” Isaac said.
Social sector spending will be the worst hit. “The union finance minister claims that MGNREGS has been given a record allocation of Rs 48,000 crore. Fact is, it is just Rs 501 crore more than the revised estimates for the current fiscal, which is Rs 47,499 crore,” Isaac said. This figure, according to Isaac, will be adequate to provide only 45 job days for those registered under the scheme, giving lie to Jaitley’s claim that 100 job days.
In the case of PMGSY, there is no increase in allocation, it is same as the current fiscal (Rs 19,000 crore). There has been no increase in social welfare pensions, too. In the case of SSA, non-meal scheme and national drinking water scheme, Isaac said that the increase was only marginal. “Jaitley had claimed that the income of farmers will be doubled, but the allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture has increased by a mere Rs 3,000 crore, from Rs 48,072 crore to Rs 51,026 crore,” the minister said. For rural development, too, there is just Rs 3,000 crore increase. In the case of Fasal Bima Yojan, the allocation has fallen from Rs 13,240 crore to Rs 9,000 crore. Isaac said that the central share granted to states was only nominal.
