Govt's economic package nothing but recipe for large scare privatisation: CPI (M)

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the economic package announced by the government is "nothing but a recipe for large scale privatisation, enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor.

The economic stimulus package announced by the finance minister did not address either the current challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic or the sufferings caused by the extended lockdown, the Left leader said at a press conference.

The Union government has announced an overall package of Rs 20 lakh crore to deal with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

"This economic package has nothing to do with self reliance. It's a recipe for large scale privatisation, enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor, Yechury said and called upon all like-minded parties to come together to put pressure on the government to extend financial help to states, which are the frontline fighters in thisbattle.

Yechury noted that the basic problem with the economy is dip in demand and unless the purchasing power of the people is increased, it cannot be revived.

"Now that can be increased only if there is massive dose of public investment to build our much needed infrastructure which in turn will generate jobs, he said.

"Instead, the government is trying to delegate it to the private sector. With a high gestational lag in such projects, private entities would not want to invest. The economic package did not have any announcements in this direction," he added.

The Left leader also said that the additional Rs 40,000 crores under the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act doesn't suffice and pointed out that there is Rs 11,000 crore of pending arrears of the last year's payment.

"If you take that away, then that allocation is far too little to meet the needs of eight crore migrants who are on the streets as per the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said.

"This too is a demand generated allocation, which means it will be released only when there is a demand. Often, in the past we have seen that money allocated has not been released because of their claim that there was no demand. It's a false claim, which they have been getting away with," Yechury said.

He noted that during the last two months, NPA worth Rs 68,600 crore has been written off by the government when it fails to provide one-time loan waiver for the farmers. Instead of providing monetary help, he said, the government has put the entire onus on the banks by taking the loan route.

"Which bank is going to give loan when they have been told to cut down on NPAs? he asked.