Unemployment down, back to pre-Covid level: Sitharaman counters Opposition criticism

“In November 2021, we saw a net addition in the EPFO at 13.9 lakh, an increase of 109% over the previous year and the highest in any given month since 2017,” she said.

She also touched upon the issue of income inequality, which Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had raised in his articulation of two Indias — one of the rich and the other of the poor.

“On income inequality, issues have been raised. In 2015, we brought in PM Mudra Yojana. In that 32.11 crore loans have been given with a sanctioned amount of Rs 17 lakh crore. This has created 1.2 crore additional employment. Despite the pandemic, 15 sustainable development goals have all been included for reducing inequalities,” the minister said.

She argued that the government was spending more on agriculture than ever.

“In 2013-14, expenditure of department of agriculture was about Rs 19,000 crore. This has been increased by PM Narendra Modi 6.6 times to Rs 1.24 lakh crore. Out of this, Rs 68,000 crore will be transferred in DBT mode. Agricultural infrastructure fund has been created with a size of Rs 1 lakh crore,” Sitharaman said.

She took exception to Congress members earlier criticising the government on farm issues and said that had it been for Congress, India would not have been able to procure food grains from farmers and distribute under PDS after 2017.

“The kind of struggle we had to go through to correct an error made by the UPA at WTO in having given away our right to secure our food procurement policy. Today they are speaking about right to food. If the 2013 UPA government’s agreement to the WTO had been implemented, from January 2017 we couldn’t have procured paddy from farmers. We couldn’t have distributed rice through the MSP. They sold away the right of the farmers,” Sitharaman said.

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She said the government had also increased allocation for fertilisers. “The global price of fertilisers has gone up. We import a lot of fertilisers. We did not pass on the burden and gave them at the same price. Rs 79,530 crore been given as fertilizer subsidy, the RE has gone up to Rs 1.4 lakh crore,” she said.

By the end of the reply, which ran for almost two hours, the Congress staged a walkout.

Sitharaman also said that the government had not reduced MGNREGA allocation. “MGNREGA is a demand-driven programme. Whenever there is demand, we give more through the supplementary demand for grants. We have not reduced allocation… The amount has remained the same….MGNREGA has never been let down,” she said.

With concerns being raised over MSMEs having been hit during the pandemic, Sitharaman said the MSME sector was the backbone of India’s manufacturing and they needed all the support. “Rs 20000 crore has been given to the subordinate debt for MSMEs. This will help MSMEs in distress. Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free automatic loans for businesses which has been enhanced to Rs 4.5 lakh crore and another Rs 50,000 crore has been added for those in the hospitality sector. Emergency Credit Liquidity Guarantee scheme has been extended. The amounts of loan sanctioned under the scheme is Rs 3.1 lakh crore. Rs 2.36 lakh crore have been disbursed,” she said.

She also denied that social welfare schemes were getting less allocation.

“For SC and ST welfare, the BE (Budget Estimate) is higher than previous BE and RE (Revised Estimate). During the UPA, every time the BE used to be a big number, but the RE would be half of it. What was spent on health in 2013-14? Rs 37,330 crore. But actual spending was only Rs 28,662 crore. So UPA was in the habit of putting big numbers. What are we spending on health? It is Rs 89,350 crore now. In 2012-13, the BE for education was Rs 1.06 lakh crore. But the RE stood at just over Rs 71,000 crore. Our BE in 2020-21 was Rs 99,311 crore. Our actual spending was Rs 84,219 crore,” she said.

She said expenditure on Covid-related health preparedness package in 2020-21 was Rs 12,117 crore, while in 2021-22 it went up to Rs 15,731 crore. She said that the NDA health budget had increased by 35%.

Sitharaman argued that despite the pandemic the government had done well to put the economy on the path of recovery. She also said that the Modi government had done better than UPA in the 2008-09 global financial crisis.

“It is easy to throw at us inflation, price rise and ask what are you doing. I agree there is need to do more. That is why we are importing more edible oils, we are removing restrictions on pulses,” she said.