The All India Kisan Sabha(AIKS), the farmer wing of the CPM, which is also a part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha that led the demonstration against the three farm laws, slammed the Union Budget, calling it anti-poor, anti-farmer, insensitive to genuine demands of farmers. The AIKS termed the Budget as one that reflects the “government’s vengeance on farmers’ protests.”
In its press release, the AIKS stated that the total allocation was ₹4,74,750.47 crore in 2021-22 (Revised Estimates) which has plunged to ₹3,70,303 crore. The share of rural development has also fallen from 5.59 per cent to 5.23 per cent. In addition to this, there is a cut in allocations for procurement, MGNREGA, crop insurance, food and fertiliser subsidy, they added.
"FM Nirmala Sitharaman has sought to create hype that 2.37 lakh crore is set aside for procurement of paddy and wheat in 2022-23. In fact this is lesser than the allocation of 2.48 lakh crore…"https://t.co/8cYf3bGthN
— AIKS (@KisanSabha) February 2, 2022
“The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has sought to create hype that 2.37 lakh crore is set aside for procurement of paddy and wheat in 2022-23. In fact this is lesser than the allocation of 2.48 lakh crore made last year and the beneficiaries will also be drastically reduced from to 1.63 crores only while beneficiaries last year were 1.97 crore; an exclusion of 34 lakh farmers while we have been demanding expansion to all crops and widening of the reach,” the farmers’s wing of CPM alleged in its statement.
The AIKS cites the reduction in BE figures for FY 2022-23 in procurement of wheat and paddy to allege that the budget is against the interests of farmers and a reflection of the government’s “vengeance” against the farmers’ protests.
AIKS’ misgivings about Union Budget unwarranted and groundless: Govt sources
However, sources in the central government have called the apprehensions raised by the AIKS as unwarranted and groundless. They assert that while the food subsidy budget for FY 2021-22-BE was Rs 2.46 lakh crores, the Revised Estimate(RE) was Rs 2.92 lakh crores. For the FY 2022-23, the budget estimate is pegged at Rs 2.13 lakh crores, which is less than the last year’s BE, but that is because of the PMGKY scheme (providing 5 kg per person additional foodgrains due to COVID pandemic) is upto March, 2022, government sources said.
The total value of MSP for paddy and wheat for FY 2020-21 was Rs 2.44 lakh crores while the total procurement of paddy and wheat was 1285 lakh tonnes. More than 1.74 crore farmers benefitted from the procurement by the Centre.
However, in her budget speech, FM Sitharaman announced that the centre would procure 1208 tonnes of wheat and paddy of the kharif season alone, sources privy to details of Union Budget said. They stated that the MSP value of this procurement stands at Rs 2.37 lakh crores and close to 1.63 crore farmers would benefit from the procurement.
In addition to this, some paddy procured in Rabi season will be counted in 2021-22 season, thereby increasing the figures of quantity procured, MSP paid to farmers and the total number of farmers benefitting in the season.
The Rabi marketing season 2021-22 for paddy will commence from April 2022 and upto September 2022. In the 2020-21 Rabi marketing season, paddy procurement stood at 176 lakh tonnes, covering 26 lakh farmers and with Rs. 33228 crores of MSP paid by the Centre.
