Union Budget evokes mixed reactions in Dibrugarh

 A CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH: The Union budget 2023-24 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman on Wednesday, evoked mixed reactions from the people of Dibrugarh.

"I strongly criticize the Union Budget 2023 - 24 as it fails to take note of rising unemployment which was promised by Narendra Modi in 2014. Rs 2 crore per year presently it should be around Rs 10 crore. Increasing inequality, inflation, and emerging multi-dimensional rural crisis. The Budget neglects the ground realities of the economy and is an attempt to strengthen the perception that everything is okay with the economy. The locations provided for education, health, MNREGA, food security, and other social sectors are inadequate and will be a big blow to the tolling masses pushing them towards greater vulnerability and exposing them to hunger and devastation," said Ranjan Chowdhury, secretary All India Trade Union Congress, Assam State Commitee.

He further said, "The allocation on agriculture has been reduced by Rs 8,500 crore when farmers are suffering from high input costs. No attempt is made in the budget to help them. The capital subsidy on MSMEs is not clear leading to false claims. Food subsidy is reduced from Rs 2.8 lakh crore to Rs 1.97 lakh crore. ICDS allocation is kept the same as last year's. The allocation for NREGS was Rs 89,000 crore 2022-2023 but now it has been reduced to Rs 60,000 crore in this Budget. Thus, all social sector allocations are reduced.

The Budget is an anti-people, anti-development and unrealistic one to meet the present needs. Moreover, under the above circumstances, it's quite impossible to become Viswaguru."

Jyoti Prasad Kanoi, senior Chartered Accountant (CA), Dibrugarh said, "It's very sad that the Union Finance Minister didn't utter a word on the 200-year old Assam tea. Nothing has been given for the Assam tea in this budget. The Assam tea has been facing huge crisis and the people belonging from tea sector expected that they will get something for Assam tea but nothing has been announced in this budget." "For the infrastructure development of the Northeast, Rs 10,000 crore was allocated. Some areas the budget has touched but some areas were totally ignored," Jyoti Prasad Kanoi said.

Suresh Varma, senior Chartered Accountant said, "The Budget is very pragmatic and everybody is happy with the budget. The budget has touched all sectors. Lots of extra allocation has been given for Northeast in this budget."

"The allocation to the north-eastern region is substantially higher as against revised budget estimate for revenue expenditure of Rs 57,000 crores and capital expenditure of Rs 15,000 crore, the budget allocation for 2023-24 has been increased to Rs 69.8 k and Rs 24.8 k, almost 31% increase in allocation," he said.

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