Budget 2007 downright anti-poor: SUCI

Ahmedabad, Mar 1 (UNI) Union Budget 2007-08 is downright anti-poor and pro-rich, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) said today.

''With alarming increase in suicide cases of jobless workers and the ongoing farmers suicides, the Finance Minister P Chidambaram has not taken any concrete measure to either immediatley prevent price rise or stem the spurt in suicide rate,'' SUCI General Secretary Nihar Mukherjee said in a statement here.

The cosmetic reduction of duties is heavily tilted towards the interest of big businesses and market speculators and is bound to aggravate the soaring prices and bring the farmers into a bigger debt trap and throw out more number of working people from gainful employment. There is more starvation, hunger and unemployment ahead, he said.

He flayed the government decision to import 5.5 million tonnes of wheat on government account and one lakh tonnes on private account when the international price of wheat is going up which could lead to further worsening of prices for the poor whose staple food is wheat, he said.

''While euphoria is being artificially generated over duty cuts, the Finance Minister has given in to the sinister move of expanding the service tax net, a new device of indirect taxation to squeeze the pocket of the common consumers on the plea 'not burdening the House with details,'' Mr Mukherjee said.

He also deplored allocation of hefty sum of Rs 96,000 crores, almost 15 per cent of government expenditure, towards most unproductive military expenditure.

UNI