FM calls for saving jobs, credit support

Days after presenting the Interim Budget 2009-10, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today called for more investment in infrastructure, adequate credit support to economically weaker sections and upgrading skills of the workforce.

Inaugurating the 42nd Indian Labour Conference (ILC), a forum of the government, industry and workers, Mukherjee called for strengthening the social welfare net and protecting the pension system. He said jobs should be safeguarded even at the cost of low compensation in the face of the ongoing global financial crisis.

At the same time, Mukherjee sounded a warning to industrialised nations like the US, which have shown protectionist tendencies to bail out their economies.

“We are witnessing worrying signs of protectionism in the world’s biggest economy. We will need to argue against this trend at the international fora,” he said. Yesterday, he had hinted in Parliament at the possibility of a third economic stimulus package to help industry face the meltdown.

While Mukherjee was silent on the Interim Budget, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia stressed the government’s promise to inject an additional Rs 60,000 crore.

According to Ahluwalia, the finance minister had said that an additional allocation of 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) was needed to be injected into the Plan expenditure in the General Budget.

Ahluwalia, however, pointed out that parliamentary and Constitutional constraints had prevented the government from announcing this in the Interim Budget. He said the additional allocation of 1 per cent of GDP could go towards infrastructure, rehabilitation of urban areas and relief for rural areas.

“This will give a substantial stimulus to the economy and we will avoid a decline in production that is being seen in other countries,” Ahluwalia added.

According to the labour ministry, five million jobs have been lost in the last three months of 2008 alone.

Trade unions present today noted that the conference had been convened more than a year after the April 2007 meet and just prior to the elections.

While these conferences are inaugurated by the prime minister and chaired by the labour minister and is usually attended by many central ministers, the ongoing conference — being held while Parliament is in session — saw Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes leave immediately after the inauguration.

AITUC General Secretary Mahadevan said that the meeting could not take place for 15 months as the prime minister had no time.