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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Pension Parishad members criticize Interim Budget for 2014-15

Pension Parishad members criticize Interim Budget for 2014-15

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published Published on Feb 18, 2014   modified Modified on Feb 18, 2014
-Press Release Pension Parishad


Pension Parishad members have decried the manner in which the UPA-II government is appeasing the credit rating agencies and captains of finance and industry while ignoring millions of elderly and deprived people of their right to social security in this country

New Delhi, 17 February 2014: Describing the Interim Budget for 2014-15 "as an absolute let-down", Nikhil Dey, speaking on behalf of the Pension Parishad, said that far from being pro-people the budget has clearly exposed its bias towards the rich and privileged by undertaking fiscal consolidation at the cost of high priority development expenditure aimed at reaching out to the most vulnerable sections of the population such as the elderly, single women and people living with disability.

Taking this forward, Aruna Roy, National Convenor, Pension Parishad, warned that, "Having struggled persistently on this issue since 2012 assembling at Delhi before and during each Lok Sabha session we are not prepared to give up and will make it a poll issue, with women, elderly, people living with disability and all other marginal populations making it clear that to get our vote provide a monthly pension of Rs. 2000."

It was also felt that on the issue of providing adequate social security for the elderly, women and people living with disability, the sense of feeling "betrayed" was even more pervasive and that the failure of the central government to revamp the scheme has seriously eroded the credibility of UPA II as a pro-poor government.

In this context, it was pointed out that, with 32% of elderly males and 72% of elderly women (NSSO Round 60) being dependent on others for sustenance, the government had created widespread disillusionment by going back on the commitments it made on the floor of the House to revamp the National Social Assistance Program so as to universalize old age pension entitlements and improve the pension amounts so that the elderly, women and people living with disability can live with a modicum of dignity and self respect.

Pension Parishad members went on to state that a reduction of the Fiscal Deficit in 2013-14, from the earlier estimated level of 4.8 % of GDP (in Budget Estimates) to 4.6 % of GDP (in Revised Estimates) has been achieved by the Finance Ministry by not only cutting back on crucial development expenditure but also by failing to step up the tax-GDP ratio in 2013-14.

With the Gross Tax Revenue of the Union Government in 2013-14 expected to be lower (at Rs. 11.59 lakh crore in RE) than what had been projected last year (at Rs. 12.36 lakh crore in BE) no visible progress has been made towards addressing this core problem which is a great extent contributing to the present Fiscal Deficit, they added.

Pointing out the implications of reducing development expenditure in key sectors such as Rural Development, the activists emphasized that the negligence of flagship programs such as MNREGA, (which had to a great extent ensured a UPA victory in the polls in 2009) is a telling and stark example of the failure of UPA-II to stick to its pledge to scale up the flagship program, go beyond election rhetoric and deliver guaranteed employment which it proudly claims to have conferred as a legislated right to the rural poor.

The gap between intent and practice is amply demonstrated in the fact that the Union Government's Actual Expenditure under the Department of Rural Development which had fallen drastically from Rs. 64,263 crore in 2011-12 to Rs. 50,187 crore in 2012-13 was further reduced when in 2013-14, the Budget Estimate for the Department had been pegged at Rs. 74,478 crore was slashed to Rs. 59,356 crore in Revised Estimate for this year. Thus, the budget for MGNREGA has not even kept pace with inflation over these years.

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Farah Zia; 9560511667 and Padmini: 09810481807


Press Release Pension Parishad, 18 February, 2014,


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