Stalin trashes Union Budget, slams Centre for 'big brother' attitude

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday dubbed the Union Budget 2022 as one that has forgotten people's welfare and slammed the Centre for its 'big brother attitude' by ignoring the demand of state governments to further extend the GST compensation regime.

Stalin said there is no change in personal income tax slabs, no welfare schemes for farmers who died protesting the three farm laws, no flood relief allocation to the state and there is also no funding for Tamil Nadu government's project proposals.

The budget is a big disappointment for Tamil Nadu and its people, the Chief Minister said. Though an announcement on preparation of a Detailed Project Report for the Godavari-Pennar-Cauvery river link project is a matter of solace, the concern is that there is not even a preliminary budgetary allocation to execute it. Since there is no allocation for the defence corridor initiative in Tamil Nadu, the state has been ignored in this sector as well, he alleged. 

A cut in allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme to the tune of about Rs 25,000 crore does not only seem to scuttle the initiative introduced during the UPA regime, but it also showed the Centre's thought process that 'not even a single paisa' should be left in the hands of the people at the bottom of the pyramid, he claimed. The 1 lakh crore to states for capital investment, though created an impression that states were going to get it, Stalin said and wondered how the states could get the assistance considering the several conditions imposed. Had the budget announcement stated that the 1 lakh crore would be distributed to states without any conditions, ''I would have first welcomed it,'' he said. 

The 'One Nation One Registration' announcement interfered in the rights of the state governments. The Central government 'ignoring' the request of the state governments to extend the GST compensation regime beyond the June 30, 2022 deadline, only showed the 'big brother attitude' of the Union government, he alleged. On the whole, Stalin said there was nothing in the budget to inspire people's confidence and it ignored the expectations of the public against the background of upcoming elections in 5 states.

Hence, it would only be appropriate to term the Union Budget 2022 as one that that has 'forgotten people's welfare', he said.