In response to opposition assertions of rising unemployment, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday that the country's jobless rate has lately decreased following the pandemic's peak, and that the government has generated adequate job opportunities through its Budget.
“Members pointed out that only 60 lakh jobs are being talked about in the Budget. That was for only one of the schemes, which is the PLI scheme. Other schemes will also generate employment. Latest periodic labour force survey indicates that urban unemployment in January-March quarter in 2021-22 has declined to pre-pandemic level of 9%, after peaking to 20.8% during the first wave,” Sitharaman said in Lok Sabha while replying to the debate on the Budget.
“In November 2021, we saw a net addition in the EPFO at 13.9 lakh, an increase of 109% over the previous year and the highest in any given month since 2017,” she said.
She also addressed the problem of income inequality, which was raised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his description of two Indias, one for the wealthy and the other for the poor.
“On income inequality, issues have been raised. In 2015, we brought in PM Mudra Yojana. In that 32.11 crore loans have been given with a sanctioned amount of Rs 17 lakh crore. This has created 1.2 crore additional employment. Despite the pandemic, 15 sustainable development goals have all been included for reducing inequalities,” the minister said.
She said that the government was spending more money on agriculture than it had in the past.
“In 2013-14, expenditure of department of agriculture was about Rs 19,000 crore. This has been increased by PM Narendra Modi 6.6 times to Rs 1.24 lakh crore. Out of this, Rs 68,000 crore will be transferred in DBT mode. Agricultural infrastructure fund has been created with a size of Rs 1 lakh crore,” Sitharaman said.
She took issue with Congress members who had previously criticised the government on farm concerns, claiming that India would not have been able to buy food grains from farmers and distribute them under the PDS beyond 2017.
“The kind of struggle we had to go through to correct an error made by the UPA at WTO in having given away our right to secure our food procurement policy. Today they are speaking about right to food. If the 2013 UPA government’s agreement to the WTO had been implemented, from January 2017 we couldn’t have procured paddy from farmers. We couldn’t have distributed rice through the MSP. They sold away the right of the farmers,” Sitharaman said.
She added that the government has boosted fertiliser allocations. “The global price of fertilisers has gone up. We import a lot of fertilisers. We did not pass on the burden and gave them at the same price. Rs 79,530 crore been given as fertilizer subsidy, the RE has gone up to Rs 1.4 lakh crore,” she said.
The Congress staged a walkout by the end of the nearly two-hour-long response.
Sitharaman also stated that the government's MGNREGA grant has not been cut. “MGNREGA is a demand-driven programme. Whenever there is demand, we give more through the supplementary demand for grants. We have not reduced allocation… The amount has remained the same….MGNREGA has never been let down,” she said.
Concerns have been voiced about MSMEs being affected by the pandemic, but Sitharaman says the MSME sector is the backbone of India's industry and needs all the help it can get. “Rs 20000 crore has been given to the subordinate debt for MSMEs. This will help MSMEs in distress. Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free automatic loans for businesses which has been enhanced to Rs 4.5 lakh crore and another Rs 50,000 crore has been added for those in the hospitality sector. Emergency Credit Liquidity Guarantee scheme has been extended. The amounts of loan sanctioned under the scheme is Rs 3.1 lakh crore. Rs 2.36 lakh crore have been disbursed,” she said.
She also denied that social welfare schemes were getting less allocation.
“For SC and ST welfare, the BE (Budget Estimate) is higher than previous BE and RE (Revised Estimate). During the UPA, every time the BE used to be a big number, but the RE would be half of it. What was spent on health in 2013-14? Rs 37,330 crore. But actual spending was only Rs 28,662 crore. So UPA was in the habit of putting big numbers. What are we spending on health? It is Rs 89,350 crore now. In 2012-13, the BE for education was Rs 1.06 lakh crore. But the RE stood at just over Rs 71,000 crore. Our BE in 2020-21 was Rs 99,311 crore. Our actual spending was Rs 84,219 crore,” she said.
She stated that the cost of the Covid-related health preparation package was Rs 12,117 crore in 2020-21, rising to Rs 15,731 crore in 2021-22. She stated that the NDA's health budget had grown by 35%.
Despite the pandemic, Sitharaman said that the government had done a good job of getting the economy back on track. She also stated that the Modi government performed better than the UPA during the global financial crisis of 2008-09.
“It is easy to throw at us inflation, price rise and ask what are you doing. I agree there is need to do more. That is why we are importing more edible oils, we are removing restrictions on pulses,” she said.