Chidambaram cautions govt to rein in inflation and unemployment

Chidambaram said that he is not fully convinced with the 'ELI' initiative announced in the General Budget and he fears that its fate may also be like the 'election slogan' of giving two crore jobs per year.

Starting the discussion simultaneously in the Upper House on the General Budget 2024-25 and the Budget of Jammu and Kashmir, Chidambaram said that he is particularly happy that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took the opportunity to read the Congress manifesto. He said that the Finance Minister took good ideas from pages 11, 30 and 31 of the Congress manifesto.

He advised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members, especially External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, to study the Congress manifesto so that in party meetings they can persuade the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister to adopt some more good ideas from their manifesto. He said, "If you take those ideas, we will be very, very happy to support you."

Chidambaram said, "Copying is not prohibited in this House, rather copying is encouraged and rewarded in this House. So copy a little more."

Describing unemployment as the biggest challenge, he cited the estimates of the 'Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy' and said that the all-India unemployment rate was 9.2 per cent in June 2024. He said that it may have come down a bit.

The former Finance Minister said that earlier there was production-based incentive. He said, "When you started employment-based incentive, there must have been some reasons for it. I think the reason for this is that the number of jobs you were expecting to be created through production-based incentives did not happen. So, please tell the Finance Minister what were the results of PLI (Production Based Incentive Scheme)?''

He said that when the results of PLI are out, then it can be considered what could be the results of ELI (Employment Based Incentive Scheme). He said that the full picture of ELI is not clear by reading the speech of the Finance Minister.

Chidambaram termed ELI as an 'interesting idea' but said that it "does not create confidence in us that you will be able to bring 290 lakh people under ELI." He warned the government that its fate should not be like that 'election slogan' that two crore jobs will be given every year.

To explain the magnitude of the unemployment problem in the country, he gave the example of the examination conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Police Department for 60,244 posts in which 48 lakh people applied and later this examination was cancelled. Similarly, he also cited the examples of the huge crowd of unemployed people for recruitment to low-skilled posts in Air India, a private company in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and various posts in the State Recruitment Board.

The Congress leader said that amidst all these circumstances, just a few days ago the Reserve Bank of India said that there is no crisis of employment in India. He said that the Reserve Bank is expected to be "cautious, conservative and impartial but in this case it is neither cautious, conservative nor impartial. No minister or any government official opposed this statement of the Reserve Bank." He said that he is not at all impressed by ELI and will wait for its results, only then the intention of the government will be clear.

Talking about inflation, he said that the Finance Minister denied the existence of inflation in his budget speech 'in just ten words'. He expressed surprise and said, is inflation such a minor issue that it can be dealt with in just ten words?

He claimed that the inflation figures given by the government are many times higher in the interior and remote parts of the country. He also cited a statement by the Chief Economic Advisor given in the Economic Review that the inflation rate in India is low, stable and moving towards the target of four percent.

The former Finance Minister said that this rate has been moving towards the same target of four percent for the last four years and when will it reach the target? He said that if this rate is low and stable, then why was the rate of loan given to banks by the Reserve Bank fixed in June 2023 not reduced? He said that the bank rate of 6.5 percent which was fixed has been continuing for the last 13 months.

He said the bank rate is the indicator to know the direction in which inflation is moving. He said what the chief economic adviser said in the Economic Survey was an 'injury' and the finance minister's 10-word dismissal of the issue was 'adding insult to the injury'.

The Congress leader warned the government that it was not taking inflation seriously and the victory of the opposition alliance 'India' in 10 out of 13 seats in the last few by-elections was, in his view, a big blow to the government.
 

The Congress leader warned the government that it was not taking inflation very seriously and the victory of the opposition alliance 'India' in 10 out of 13 seats in the last few by-elections is a warning to the government in his view. He said, "If you (government) do not take inflation seriously, you will be punished further. If you want to keep facing punishment, then you are welcome to do so." He accused the government of manipulating the data to present a rosy picture about the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He said that if the growth rate increases, then it should also be felt by the common people of the country. Chidambaram said that in 2022-23 there were 7.4 crore taxpayers in the country and it would have increased to eight or eight and a half crore. He said that out of these 7.4 crore taxpayers, 65 percent have zero tax liability. Quoting the calculations of a chartered accountant from Gujarat about the new tax system, he said that the exemptions given in the budget will be available to only two to three crore people of India.

He said that what good can be achieved by giving tax relief to only two to three crore people out of the 142 crore population of the country? He asked where are the poor people of the country getting relief and what relief have the 30 crore daily wage workers got?

The former Finance Minister, referring to India being ranked 111th in the hunger index of 125 countries, said that even if the government denies this index, but giving free food to 81 crore people of the country is an admission of the fact that the country is very low in the hunger index. This shows that people are not able to afford even food.

Discussing federalism, he claimed that the funds of Kerala and West Bengal are being stopped and non-BJP state governments are being discriminated against. He questioned what was the attitude of the central government towards Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar before this April? He said that this demand of these states was already there but how were they treated earlier?

Chidambaram said that he has no complaint that Andhra Pradesh and Bihar were given relief but no other state should be discriminated against. He said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was born and studied in Tamil Nadu but this state was not named even once in her speech.

He asked the Finance Minister to consider and implement five demands. These include fixing a minimum wage of Rs 400 per day for all employment, giving legal guarantee to MSP, waiving the interest and outstanding installments of education loans given till March 2024, completely ending the Agniveer scheme and abolishing NEET. He said that if some states want to continue it, then other states should be exempted from it.

He said that these five demands will continue to be raised not only in this House but their echo will be heard wherever India Alliance gets a chance to present its views.