Budget 2024-25 – Agriculture in a Platter to Corporates : Samyukta Kisan Morcha
The proposals in the Union Budget 2024-25 placed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman are dangerous to agriculture, employment generation and overall development of the people. In agriculture, the proposal in the Budget to “promote private and public investment in post-harvest activities including aggregation, modern storage, efficient supply chains, primary and secondary processing and marketing and branding” is nothing but handing over the agriculture sector in a platter to the corporate houses-both domestic and foreign. Don’t open agriculture to foreign and Indian monopoly capital for profiteering has been the policy the State of India followed so far since independence and that helped to ensure self-reliance and food security of the country.
Instead of strengthening the public sector, cooperatives and the MSMEs, allowing corporate monopoly houses to take over post harvesting operations is a policy change and that amounts to the back entry of the 3 black Farm Acts that Modi Government was forced to repeal due to the pressure of historical farmers struggle at the Delhi Borders. SKM will vehemently oppose this proposal and ensure this proposal will not be enforced.
The Budget proposal says “the gross and net market borrowings through dated securities during 2024-25 are estimated at 14.13 and 11.75 lakh crore respectively. Both will be less than that in 2023-24”. The lower borrowings by the Central Government indicate the severe vulnerability of the economy especially in the context of the recent warning by the IMF that India will cross 100% Debt -GDP ratio if the borrowing rate persist. In 2014-15 the net liability of India was Rs. 56 lakh crores, and in 2022-23 the liability reached Rs.161 lakh crores. It denotes the gross mismanagement of the economy by the BJP led government in the past ten years. Though the national economy has become vulnerable the Modi Government is not ready to tax the rich and super rich and has decreased corporate tax rate from 30 per cent to 22 per cent for existing domestic companies and to 15 per cent for certain new manufacturing companies.
The finance minister has argued “for encouraging sustained foreign investment, we are negotiating bilateral investment treaties with our foreign partners, in the spirit of ‘first develop India’. This proposal amounts to a situation that any foreign investor can invest, develop and then operate to make profiteering in India if ready to accept the notion of “FDI”- First Develop India. This is a disturbing reference that denigrate the status of India as a sovereign country that has no “foreign partners.” The finance minister shall explain who are this “foreign partner’s and has to drop the same from the budget speech.
Though the Modi Government had given written assurance on 9th December 2021 to implement MSP@C2+50% it was not implemented so far and this Budget also has not announced it is a gross betrayal of the farmers and the people at general. Though employment has become very acute issue the Budget has no substantial allocation for employment generations, assuring minimum wage and minimum support price, for loan waiver and to reduce price rise. It did not mention higher allocation for MNREGS and not ready for 200 work days and Rs.600 as daily wage.
In this context, against the anti-farmer, anti-worker Budget, SKM appeals all the farmers to burn the copies of the Pro-Corporate Budget at village level on 3rd February 2024 and urges the people across the country to make the16 February 2024 Grameen Bandh and Industrial/ Sectoral Strike Successful.
