Sir, I want to repeat the other thing, which he was mentioning, that inflation has been in check. They say so, but what is the position with regard to retail inflation? The inflationary trend in the Wholesale Price Index has been negative, but pulses and onion in the food items category turned costlier with inflation by 52.98 per cent and 85.66 per cent during October. As you know, sir, the price of arhar dal crossed Rs 200 in some parts of the country. Though they may claim that inflation is in check, the price rise is not in check.
Lastly, I want to say that the government has not been able to bring black money from abroad as was promised before the 2014 elections. It has not been able to bring in investment to the extent possible. Narendra Modi had raised hopes among the people of this country, especially the youth, that there would be investment and hence, employment. That has not seen the light of the day. The common man has also not got Rs 15 lakh in their bank accounts which they thought would come when they opened accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana. These are the points I want to place on record.
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Now, let me come to the Supplementary Estimates. The finance minister has brought this Supplementary Budget under Article 115 of the Constitution with the recommendation of the president and under Article 113 read with clauses 1(a) and 2 of Article 115. What is the total amount? The total amount of Supplementary Budget is Rs 56,256 crore. It is not a very big amount. If you take the total Budget, it was Rs 17 lakh crore. So, this is only 3.2 per cent. It is not a big Supplementary Budget. Jaitley has further done some good “housekeeping” by reducing the cost to the extent of Rs 38,000 crore as a result of which the net outgo, extra income, extra expenditure is only to the tune of Rs 18,000 crore. So, I would praise him for his financial “housekeeping” or bookkeeping.
But let me, at this stage, point out that when we spoke on Jaitley’s Budget, what were the things that we had raised here from the Opposition side? We had said: “Yes, the Centre has devolved more money to the states as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission and from 32 per cent it has been raised to 42 per cent”. Now, the Treasury Benches were gloating over the matter. But, as we pointed out, this bigger transfer actually meant curtailing of the anti-poverty programmes meant for relieving the poor.
Which were the projects on which there was no increase? MGNREGA was not given any increase. There were drastic cuts in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Integrated Child Development Services, the National Rural Health Mission — all meant for nutrition, education and health of the common people of the country... (interruptions).
We had hope that whatever experience Jaitley and the ruling party had of the Bihar elections, they would turn away from their political thinking and start doing things for the poor. I was expecting a Supplementary Budget in which these shortfalls would be made up. But on the day the government/ruling party — which had invested so much time and money into the Bihar elections — got one of the worst drubbings in recent times from the people of Bihar, what did Jaitley do? Jaitley, as finance minister, announced a series of areas in which foreign direct investment (FDI) would be allowed. In short, he opened his arms wide to say: “Well, we are not being able to revive the economy. Come one, come all, invest in India.” Now, we have been hearing these slogans for a long time like Make in India, “Bake in India” and “Cake in India”. So, this is a continuation of the same, and he opened the door to FDI.
Having spoken in general, now I shall only deal with a few specific grants. As I said, out of the Rs 56,000 crore, not all are big allotments. Somewhere he has spent Rs 1 crore extra and somewhere Rs 2 crore extra... (interruptions). For the Cabinet, there is the Supplementary budget of Rs 196 crore. And one of the important items of expenditure is for meeting the expenditure towards clearing pending claims for maintenance of PM’s aircraft of Rs 144 crore. In a poor country we are spending Rs 144 crore extra because the PM has to fly all over the world to bring in Make in India. So, Rs 144 crore extra is given in the Supplementary Demands. Good! Now, he will explain how this helped the poor people in the country... (interruptions).
Sir, he has given extra money for reviving the Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited and for relieving the Indian Telephone Industries Limited. I support these demands. He has got the One Rank, One Pension on his head. The immediate outgo for pensions to military personnel will go up and he has given an extra Rs 5,700 crore for the military though they are not very happy. Already the Chiefs of Staff are complaining about unfair treatment in the Seventh Pay Commission and veterans are again demanding that they will start an agitation. It is a problem which I thought would be solved. So, even with Rs 5,700 crore I am not sure if the problem will be solved.