Budget 2021: ‘Visionless budget’ with theme of ‘Sell India’, TMC on Sitharaman’s Budget 2021-22

Union Budget 2021-22: Soon after Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman presented Budget 2021, the Trinamool Congress termed it as ‘visionless budget’ with the theme of ‘Sell India’. Following the presentation of the budget in Parliament, TMC MP Derek O’Brien referred to the Centre’s monetisation plan under which a number of national assets will be sold. He also said that the common people and farmers were ignored by Sitharaman and that the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. The TMC leader also said that there was nothing in the budget for the middle class.

In a series of tweets, Derek O’Brien said: “India’s first paperless budget is also a 100% visionless budget. Theme of the fake budget is Sell India! Railways: sold; Airports: sold; Ports: sold; Insurance: sold; PSUs:23 sold! Common people ignored. Farmers ignored. Rich get richer, nothing for the middle class, poor get poorer.”

India’s first paperless budget is also a 100% visionless budget.Theme of the fake budget is Sell India!

Railways:sold
Airports:sold
Ports: sold
Insurance: sold
PSUs:23 sold!

Common people ignored. Farmers ignored.

Rich get richer,nothing for middle class,poor get poorer (1/3)

— Derek O’Brien | ডেরেক ও’ব্রায়েন (@derekobrienmp) February 1, 2021

The TMC leader then stated the achievement of his government and compared it to what Sitharaman proposed in Budget 2021. He said that his state had 39,705 km of rural roads till 2011. But from 2011 to 2020, 88,841 km of rural roads were built in West Bengal, making it number one. “What Bengal did yesterday, Centre only talks today,” he said while referring to Sitharaman’s Budget promise of 625 km roads in Bengal.

During the budget presentation, Sitharaman today said that monetising operating public infrastructure assets was a very important financing option for new infrastructure construction. She said that a ‘National Monetization Pipeline’ of potential brownfield infrastructure assets will be launched. The Finance Minister announced that the Railways will monetise Dedicated Freight Corridor assets for operations and maintenance, after commissioning. She also said that the next lot of Airports will be monetised for operations and management concession.

Some other infrastructure assets that will be rolled out under the Asset Monetization Programme are: NHAI Operational Toll Roads; Transmission Assets of PGCIL; Oil and Gas Pipelines of GAIL, IOCL and HPCL; AAI Airports in Tier II and III cities; Other Railway Infrastructure Assets; Warehousing Assets of CPSEs such as Central Warehousing Corporation and NAFED among others and Sports Stadiums.