Rajya Sabha discusses on Union Budget 2022-23

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha yesterday took up discussion on the Union Budget 2022-23. Initiating it, Congress leader P. Chidambaram raised questions over the unemployment in the country saying that the government has promised to provide two crore jobs, however, it has failed to provide the same. 

He said, the government expresses its inability to provide data related to every issue including deaths due to Covid, oxygen shortage, and doubling farmers’ income. He added, the government had talked about privatizing three public sector banks and one insurance company in the last Budget, but this Budget is silent about the progress made in this direction. 

Mr. Chidambaram said, the Budget does not mention the earlier announcement of the National Monetization Pipeline.

Trinamool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar questioned the government over the disinvestment target set in the last Budget saying that the Centre has failed in achieving the targets. Terming the fiscal deficit extremely high, he said, debt to GDP ratio has reached 61 percent which is extremely high. 

Raising the point of increase in the wealth of Billionaires of the country, he urged the government to impose wealth tax. He also questioned the reduction of budgetary allocation on various social schemes.

Participating in the discussion, DMK MP Mohamed Abdulla questioned the government’s intention to repeal three farm laws. He said, the government repealed the farm laws in view of the assembly elections in several states and not to serve the interest of the farmers. He alleged that government policies are only favouring the corporates. Former Prime Minister and JDS leader HD Deve Gowda raised the issue of river interlinking saying that more water must be provided to Karnataka as the population has increased multifold.

Terming the Budget as visionary, Arun Singh of BJP said, this Budget reflects the aspirations of self-reliant India. He said, the Budget will provide financial stability to the country and it is praised by several global financial bodies including IMF. He appreciated the several initiatives including Digital India Mission saying that it has empowered the people.

Shiv Sena’s Dhairysheel Mane, who was the first to speak on it today, remarked



that there is no mention of the Minimum Support Price for food grains despite the yearlong protests by the farmers. He charged that the Budget is silent on the Centre’s promise of doubling farmers' income.

Sri Krishna Devarayalu Lavu of the YSRCP said the acceptance of the digital currency and tech economy by the Government as seen in the Budget is praiseworthy. He said, the Prime Minister’s Gharib Kalyan Yojana is not mentioned in the Budget which is a matter of concern. He urged the Centre to accord special status for the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Bhartruhari Mahtab of BJD said the Budget looks into the future while keeping a close eye on the ground. He said, it has laid down the roadmap of the Government, adding all the stakeholders should align themselves with its vision. However, he expressed concern that allocation for critical sectors like agriculture, higher education, rural development and women and child development have been slashed.

Ram Shiromani Verma of the BSP said the budget has ignored the poor and the farmers. He blamed the Government of not giving any new income tax relief for the taxpayers.

Gaddam Ranjit Reddy of the TRS said, the budget lacks vision for the future. He said several sectors including information technology have been neglected in the Budget.

Congress member Dr Jayakumar charged the Government of Covid mismanagement adding, the migrant crisis during the pandemic has been due to the failure in proper planning before announcing nationwide lockdown.

BJP’s Jayant Sinha said, infrastructure projects including National Highways have been given further impetus. He also recalled that the manufacturing of semiconductor chips and solar panels have been given a boost.

A M Ariff of the CPI (M) charged that when the nation celebrates the centenary of her Independence, many of the public sector undertakings would be in the hands of private people, as the Centre is disinvesting them.

The RSP member NK Premachandran urged the Government to increase the allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme. He said, the promise of doubling the farmers income by this year has not been fulfilled.