Terming as “disappointing” the Union Budget, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal on Thursday said that it provides no relief to the debt-ridden State rather Punjab would suffer a loss of nearly Rs 1,000 crores because of slashing excise duty on fuel.
Manpreet minced no words to take on the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who presented the last budget of the NDA Government before 2019 polls on Thursday, for completely ignoring all demands of the state.
He termed the announcement of giving minimum support price (MSP) 50 percent over the cost of production as nothing but a “jumla”.
“Here the question is how they will calculate the cost of production...My biggest fear is that the farmers are set to face loss as they would deliberately calculate the cost of production at reduced rates...I feel this is nothing but a jumla,” said Manpreet, adding that the biggest hope from the Centre was that it would announce something for farmers’ distress.
The total increase in agriculture budget is only Rs 5,000 crore which is nothing as per the country’s size, and the grant was only for increasing the growth and not for the welfare of farmers.
“The Centre has been pushing for a pro-farmer budget, but there is nothing in the budget for the farmers....While the provision for health insurance of five lakh poor families has been made, I wonder if we have so many doctors or hospitals to treat this many number of patients,” he added.
Maintaining that there was not politics behind criticising the Centre on its budget, he criticised Jaitley for leaving out 550th anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev and 100th anniversary of Jallianwala Bagh while announcing 150th anniversary of Mahatama Gandhi.
“During our pre-budget meeting, we have requested funds for He said that for the guru nanak dv’s 550th birth anniversary celebrations and centenary celebrations of Jallianwala Bagh incident, but the government did not announced anything,” he said.
As far as Punjab is concerned, “we have asked for funds for the Horticulture University at Abohar, but there was no mention of it.
There was nothing for the Kandi area, even as the projects were announced for the North East, and Kashmir borders...It would have been good if there is something for Punjab boirders too”.
Manpreet said that the government, in its economic survey released couple of days before, had itself admitted that GDP has come down, and I feel it was because of GST and demonetisation.
“I am upset with the budget as the government has reduced basic excise duties on the petrol, diesel, reducing the state’s share of 42 percent, meaning thereby that the state would lose something between Rs 700 and Rs 1000,” he said.