Chidambaram on Budget 2024: Centre biased towards rich; crucial unemployment, GDP data left out

Hyderabad: Commenting on the interim budget released by the Centre on Thursday, former union finance minister P Chidambaram said that the data on markers of the country’s economic health such as unemployment, farmers and GDP given by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman have been challenged by economists and domain experts.

“The fundamental flaw in the NDA’s approach to the economy and governance is that it is biased in favour of the rich. It is a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The government is either ignorant or callous to the fact that the top 10 per cent owns 60 per cent of the nation’s wealth and earns 57 per cent of the national income and that income inequality has widened significantly in the last 10 years,” said Chidambaram.

Putting the 63-page mini-Economic Survey and Thursday’s last budget before the 2024 general elections under the spotlight, he said the Centre touched on many topics without focusing on the real issues.

Youth, unemployment and women’s safety

Chidambaram said that the FM did not talk about unemployment among youth.

“According to the PLFS (July 2022-June 2023) and the State of Working India Report, 2023, the unemployment rate among youth between the age of 15-29 years is 10 per cent (rural 8.3, urban 13.8). Among graduates under the age of 25 years, the unemployment rate is 42.3 per cent. Even when the graduates reach the age of 30-34 years, the unemployment rate is still 9.8 per cent. The FM did not acknowledge the rampant unemployment,” he said.

He also found fault with the wage gap among genders. Quoting PLFS data, he said that male casual workers earn 48 per cent more than women workers and male regular workers 24 per cent more than women and the labour force participation rate among urban women is 24 per cent (against 73.8 per cent for men). He said that the government should focus on rising crime against women and widespread unpaid employment.

Farmers, farm laws and GDP

Claiming that the FM did not focus on the increasing number of farmer suicides in the budget speech, he said that the Centre should focus on ‘rising input costs, insufficient and uncertain MSP, biased import and export policies, and crop insurance that is either absent or denied.’

“The wrath of the farmers was seen by the whole world when they protested against the three unjust farm laws passed without consulting them,” he said.

Chidambaram said that the FM should have focused on per capita income while speaking about GDP and also should have mentioned India’s rank in the Global Hunger Index or the widespread malnutrition among children while talking about the free grain being distributed.

“She barely referred to inflation but she did not refer to the fact that food inflation, currently is 7.7 per cent; that real wages for casual workers have stagnated for four years; and the fact that there is an increase in the proportion of workers dependent on agriculture,” he said.