The  Union Budget 2019-20, presented by the Finance Minister, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman on behalf of the BJP Govt at the centre has turned out to be deceptive assurance for the mass of the people without any substantive provisions and a series of bonanza and giveaways for the corporates in various forms. If the policy-intentions of the Govt pronounced in the Economic Survey presented before Parliament on 4^th July are taken into serious account, the budget proposals are in the same direction to achieve a single goal, to ensure bigger transfer of resources in favour of the rich and corporate extracting and looting more viciously from the mass of the common populace, the working people in particular, who are actually creating wealth from the country.

When the country’s economy has been seething in continuous slowdown in employment generating investments in real economy, unemployment rate consistently increasing reaching above 7.4% in June 2019, pushing the overall employment  level in the country to 45 years low, budget proposals has not bothered to address any of these basic problems in a substantive way except pronouncing  funny steps of setting up 80 Livelihood Business Incubators and 20 Technology Business Incubators to develop skilled entrepreneurs in agro-rural industries, which are actually envisaged to facilitate corporate entry and take-over of agriculture including land rights and destruction of petty production. In fact the Budget remained in a complete denial mode in addressing the agrarian crisis by way of augmenting public investment in agriculture and agricultural infrastructure, easy credit facility to small and marginal farmers and assured earning to agricultural workers.

The basic problem of squeezing size of the domestic markets because of declining consumption level owing to deepening impoverishment of the common people leading to cut in the existing capacity utilization in industries and services and fanning increasing losses in jobs and livelihood found no attention in the budget exercise at all. The Govt sought to assuage the people by announcing its target of making India a 5 trillion dollar economy in 2022 just like the prime Minister in its previous incarnation announced to double the income of the farmers by 2021, but the situation has gone just in the opposite direction provoking more crisis and increasing spate of farmers’ suicides.

The Budget sought to pretend taxing the rich more by enhancing surcharge on individual income from above 2.5 crore. But that has been more than neutralized and compensated by a sharp reduction in corporate tax to the tune of 10% for almost the entire corporate community by bringing 99.3% corporate entities to the minimum level of corporate tax of 25%(from 35%). This has been done despite the fact that it is this same private corporate community who are responsible for default in bank loans and also for organised pilferage from national exchequer by way of not paying their due taxes like income tax, corporate tax and other taxes, the amount of total default being Rs 7,35,000 crore at the time of previous budget.  The budget has not mentioned a single line as to how such legitimate dues in national exchequer can be recovered, rather mentioned a slew of arrangement  on simplifying tax procedure including assessment for “ease of living” for the tax payers, more so for the defaulters under their patronage. Side by side burden on people has been increased by increase in tax in petrol/diesel and other indirect taxes.

The budget pretends to give certain concessions in tax and interests in housing loan up to Rs 45 lakhs in the name of ensuring so called “affordable housing”. But this will be more beneficial to the large scale real estate businesses, which are in crisis than to the poor who really need affordable housing.   

The Budget announced more liberal entry of foreign capital/companies in all the crucial sectors of the national economy including in financial sector. While chanting the slogan of “Make in India” the Govt has already embarked on the path of destruction of indigenous manufacturing capabilities by way of liberalization of import in defence production, railway rolling stocks and other crucial areas besides resorting to mass scale outsourcing of production to private agencies including foreign companies starving the concerned PSUs, Ordnance Factories, Railway production units etc. the Budget will further speed up that destructive process.