Unlimited torture continues…

 

Even after Indian economy declined by 22.8 percent in the first quarter of this fiscal year due to the economic stagnation accelerated by the impact of the Covid-19, neither the central government nor RBI has taken any step to monetize the central government's fiscal deficit, and the RBI governor is postponing it saying when needed it can only be used as a last resort. What are they waiting for? Do they wait for the economy to fall further by 50 percent to take any action? Failure to take immediate action after such devastation is utter irresponsibility. But our finance minister is able to see a V-shaped recovery! With no worries our PM’s tireless chitter-chatter stories in Mankibaat goes on and on.

 

The Central government's fiscal deficit is projected to rise to 8-9 percent this year. Govt revenue has fallen by more than 30 percent. If government spending is further reduced to narrow down the fiscal deficit, the economic recovery will be hampered and government revenue will fall further and the fiscal deficit will widen further. It will subsequently lead to a vicious cycle that will in turn reduce revenue and widen the deficit.

 

CAG reported that central government is keeping 40% of the cess tax revenue of 2018-19 in consolidated fund of India without proper allocation, which is a violation of the GST compensation law, but the Finance Ministry has denied it. The central government is responsible to allocate 1.51 lakh crore GST compensation to the states via RBI loan. Instead the central government imposed two opportunities to further increase the debt burden of the states. The centre is threatening the States, which don't choose one of Centre's borrowing options, that it will not grant GST relief until June 2022, thereby shattered the nominal federal system of India to pieces. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after destroying the diversity of India, with a democractic guise calling for a pluralistic reform in the UN.

 

Wealthy nations representing just 13 percent of the world’s population have bought up more than half the future supply of l COVID-19 vaccine .only what is left behind is for the rest of the world. Oxfam condemn it saying a vaccine for a pandemic that is spreading around the world must be made available to people of all countries. It is against human rights to supply drugs to only a few specific countries for money. Even while the whole world has been devastated by Covid-19, Trump is haggling with the World Health Organization that he won’t pay more than $ 62 million.

 

India's Health Minister Harshavardhan has said that the states should increase their allocation for health by 8 per cent, thereby raising the allocation for India’s overall health to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025. After the Covid-19 crises, the central government set aside only Rs 7,000 crore for medical expenses! Is it not the culmination of injustice to ask the states to raise the allocations for health by 8 per cent, After depriving the states of their taxable rights and not providing them with adequate relief?.

 

The central government has not provided Rs 23,763.36 crore to Tamil Nadu, including Rs 11,269 crore in GST relief. The central bank has announced that priority sector lending will be increased to 75 per cent from March 31, 2024. The new rule of the Central Bank asks to wait for 4 years without providing immediate loan relief to the marginalized sections and farmers affected by the Covid-19 impact. This can be seen only as a chance to postpone the immediate implementation of banking reform. Why RBI did not announce any interim targets to be achieved within four years. The BJP government is implementing everything at the national level in a completely anti-democratic manner. The GST tax was implemented in a rush, the demonetization was declared abruptly without prior notice, the Lock down was put forth with just four hours announcement, then why it takes 4 years for the banking sector to implement a norm, when such sudden changes are imposed nationally, what are the alternative plans to help the victims till then?.

 

RBI's September 4 report regarding the new amendments to the PSL category, is discriminatory in reducing credit to Tamil Nadu districts. According to Article 1-A, from 2022, loans will be increased to 125 per cent for districts with low credit (less than Rs. 6000 per person) (184) in the priority credit category (184) and for districts with already increased credit (205) (loans to individuals more than Rs. 25,000). ) The loan amount to the districts will be reduced to 90%. All the 32 districts in Tamil Nadu (before being divided into 38 districts) have been classified as higher credit flowing districts, that will result in reduced credit to all districts. In this regard, Tamil Nadu is isolated compared to other states. Tamil Nadu is one of the most economically developed states in India. Tamil Nadu is paying a heavy price to stay in the Indian system. The central bank should drop its credit-cutting measures, because reducing the credit will affect the economic recovery of the covid-19 hit state.

 

The central government has stopped the LPG subsidy. This can save Rs 20,000 in the current financial year. Dharmendra Pradhan is proud that they have saved Rs 5,000 crore by taking advantage of the fall in crude oil prices. There is no guarantee that the money saved will be used for covid-19 control? The Central government has said it will give tax relief to those who funded PM Cares. When there is no transparency to know who funded the PM Cares, how can it be ascertained whether those who funded are the only ones receiving the tax exemption?

 

Petrol and diesel prices are being changed daily as oil companies are given the responsibility of determining petrol, diesel price hikes. Kerosene has not been left out, and from October onwards, kerosene will be sold at Rs 16.50 a liter, upped by Rs 1.50 per liter. The price of essential goods is also rising. But the BJP government wants the people to make an economic recovery with 500 rupees. Even in the Covid-19-economic crisis, the wealth of India's rich is increasing. The number of billionaires has doubled since 161 newcomers joined the IIFL Hurun list of richest people. Mukesh Ambani's property value has increased by 73%. He has earned Rs 90 crore every hour after the Lock down.

 

The Central Government has welcomed foreign investment in redevelopment projects at railway stations. As people rely on trains for affordable public transport, It is to be condemned that railway fares will be hiked with user charges similar to air fares and the introduction of private trains on the railway tracks, which will exclude common people from using it. The government is willing to buy up a large chunk of Air India's debt to push privatization, and then what prevents the govt from running the Air India by itself; it is the BJP government's erroneous economic approach.

 

The BJP government has set a target of privatizing 2.1 lakh crore government shares in the current financial year and has decided to sell all its 52.98 per cent stake in Bharat Petroleum. The central government plans to reduce the budget deficit by privatizing 25% of LIC's government stake. The BJP government's privatization plans and activities are to the like of selling liver for buying alcohol. Raghuram Rajan and Viral Acharya by suggesting the government to reduce its stake below 50 per cent to restructure the banks, expressed their pro-corporate stand.

 

Modi says the agri bills passed in the Lok Sabha will free farmers from middlemen and increase their income. In fact, the Modi government is doing the job of middlemen. In the parliament mostly brokerage agreements to tie up people to the likes of the big corporates are passed. Even though agriculture is on the state list, Without getting consent from States, despite the wide scale protests of the opposition parties ,The BJP government passed the bills authoritatively thereby defeated even monarchy.

 

The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill’ paves the way for the complete privatization of the agricultural market without any guarantee of government procurement. Thus State regulated mandis will be closed. The BJP government has completely freed itself of its responsibility to guarantee minimum prices for agricultural products and also to ensure that essential commodities are affordable to consumers. Thus it was not the farmers but the private markets that gained freedom. the right to fix prices did not go from the state to the farmers, but to the private sector. This will put farmers more vulnerable to falling prices. But this is not just a problem for farmers. The public distribution system will also come to an end as agricultural markets are completely privatized. The crores of people who rely on PDS for their livelihood will be pushed into extreme hunger.

 

The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill’, will force farmers to cultivate on a contract basis with the private sellers/big corporates. Thus the power/right to decide what to produce and how much to produce on the land is entirely up to the whims of the sellers/big corporates. As it will promote only the cultivation of cash crops, this would destroy India's self-sufficiency in food production.

 

In the Essential Commodities Amendment Bill, onions, potatoes, grains, oilseeds and pulses are removed from the list of essential commodities. The State will no longer impose any restrictions on the production and storage/hoarding of onions, potatoes, grains, oilseeds and pulses, so that big business groups and middlemen will be able to hoard lawfully to increase the price and profit through speculation. In India. More than 70 per cent of the people depend on agriculture. It is not only farmers who will be affected by these three passed bills, but also consumers who will be severely affected by rising prices. This will end the public distribution system, destroy India's self-sufficiency in food production and food security, and push people further into poverty.

 

Road Transport Minister VK Singh said that more than one crore migrant workers went home on foot from March to June. But the government has no data on how many people died. The govt said migrant workers were provided with food, water, medical facilities, shoes and separate places kept for them to rest and they were provided with bus and rail transport to reach their home state. These stacked up lies hide the fact that more than 900 migrant workers have died as a result of ruthless suffering imposed by the lock down. The demand for MNREGA work has increased by 38.8% due to the displacement of migrant workers. But the central government has shown no interest in extending even this minimum work guarantee. It is to be noted that the recent fall in unemployment rate is due to a decline in labor force participation and shrinking job market, not because of generation of  new employments.

 

The corporate law amendment and the three labor bills have been passed in such a way that the crime committed by the employer will not be considered as a crime but the workers will be punished for the crime not committed. Minister Santosh Kangwar said that all four labor- bills will be implemented simultaneously in December.

Three labor- bills: 1. Industrial Relations Code Bill. 2. Social Security Code Bill, 2020. 3. Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill.

According to the Industrial Relations Code Bill, factories with less than 300 employees are not required to comply with any  standing orders. This would deprive workers of their basic rights, force them to work in unsafe conditions, and intensify labor exploitation. Factories with less than 300 employees are not required to provide contract guarantees for employment. There is no need to get permission from the government to lay off employees or close the company. Workers have also been stripped of their right to strike.

 

Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill removes the guarantee of compulsory accommodation for migrant workers and removes displacement allowance for workers.

 

Amendments have also been made to company law to promote employer’s ease of doing business. According to the amendment, violating certain parts of the law will not be considered as a crime. For example, it is not a crime to change a shareholder’s rights violating the law. Imprisonment for offenses which was there before has been removed and fines have been reduced. The CSR norms have been relaxed. The bill allows Indian corporations to be listed directly on foreign stock exchanges.

 

Inflation:

Consumer price index based retail inflation increased by 6.73 per cent in August and food inflation rose by 9.27 per cent in August. Pulses became dearer by 14.44 per cent and vegetables by 11.41 per cent. Inflation in Tamil Nadu grew by 7.06 per cent.

 

Industrial growth in August:

According to the Ministry of Industry and Internal Trade& Development, the output of primary industries fell by 8.5 percent in August; from April to August, it saw a decline of 17.8 percent. Growth in Production of all other sectors except coal and fertilizer is also in negative. Coal production grew by 3.6 per cent and fertilizer production increased to 7.3 per cent.

 

Industrial growth in July:

According to the Index of Industrial Production released by the Ministry of Statistics, the output of the primary sectors fell by 10.4 per cent in July. The mining sector recorded a decline of 13.0 per cent, the manufacturing sector declined by 11.1 per cent and the power sector declined by 2.5 per cent. Growth in Production of all products except pharmaceuticals and tobacco was found to be in negative.

Production of non-durable consumer goods increased to 6.7 percent in the use-based category. The growth in production of all commodities except non-durable consumer goods is also recorded negative. Growth in production of capital goods (22.8%), primary goods (10.9%), intermediate goods (12.5%), construction materials (10.6%) and durable consumer goods (23.6%) also declined.

 

BJP’s rhetorical claim is that through 'Make in India' scheme, they have improved the technology to produce everything in India and created a self-reliant economy. But the data has falsified it. It is the manufacturing sector which determines the autonomy and economic growth of a country. The share of the manufacturing sector in the Indian economy fell from a highest 24.30 percent in 2007 to 13.72 per cent in 2019 and to a lowest 66.6 percent in April 2020. This shows that the manufacturing sector has fallen sharply since the BJP government came to power. This is not only the result of the impact of the Covid-19, even before the Covid-19 there is sharp decline in manufacturing in 2019. The BJP government has no special plans to improve or maintain the manufacturing sector. The BJP government blindly believes that foreign investment and privatization are the panacea for all economic problems. It would be better if the country improves technology through innovations and practices that increase productivity in all sectors, especially in the primary manufacturing sectors. But the attitudes and actions of the BJP government, which promotes innovation and ‘autonomy’ only in the defense sector, confirm the skepticism that India is following the path of Israel. Now a bill is passed to establish the Rashtriya Rakash Military University. India-Israel cooperation in military logistics production is an expression of a reversal in India's foreign policy. The BJP government has relaxed the ceiling on foreign direct investment in the defense sector up to 74 per cent in automatic route (without government approval). FDI in defense sector requires government approval only if exceeds 74 percent. Is there a shade of logic in celebrating this as India’s self reliance?