Budget 'regressive,' says IICD

Pondicherry,Mar 2 (UNI) The Pondicherry-based Indian Institute of Community Development (IICD) has termed the Union Budget as 'regressive' as it did not pay any attention to the human development index (HDI) in which India was placed in the 127th rank.

IICD Chairman V A Vasudevaraju said the Budget speech showed the the government was both happy and complacent about eight per cent growth rate of economy during the past three years.

But the Human Development Report revealed India had been placed 127 among among the 177 countries in HDI rankings for the past three years.This showed the government was only making a partial analysis of the economy.

Alleging 'double standards' in taxation policy, Mr Vasudevaraju said while the government policy was to reduce direct taxes, it seemed to increase indirect tax rates affecting the common man.

Though the Budget proposed to allocate Rs 3,825.73 crore for Panchayati Raj, there is no mention about how the Centre will make states implement healthy decentralisation policy as they were not willing to make the local bodies strong and autonomous as mandated by the Constitution.

Besides there is no mention of a 'carrot-and stick policy' to be adopted by the Centre to promote such decentralisation in states, he said adding mere allocation 'without requisite policy' cannot deliver results.

UNI PAB GM 1254