Let us take a look at the finance minister’s fifth and the last tranche of the Rs 20 trillion economic package announced on May 17, 2020,focussing on MGNREGA, health and education (rural and urban), businesses, decriminalisation of Companies Act, etc and go back to the earlier announcements by her and the prime minister. Her promise to allocate an additional Rs 40,000 crore, over and above the budgeted Rs 61,000 crore, to MGNREGS to generate more employment in the rural sector; to take measures to ramp up health infrastructure and education; to exclude any debt incurred by companies on account of CPOVID-19 from the category of defaults; decriminalisation of the Companies Act in violations involving minor technical and procedural defaults; further 'easing of doing business' reforms; opening up of public sector enterprises to the private sector; and hiking of borrowing limits of states from three per cent to five per cent of Gross State Domestic Product for 2020-21. All are aimed at covering up the fact that India’s economy has lost momentum for three straight years and the financial sector has skidded from one crisis to another.

The fourth tranche of measures aims at liberalisation of norms and increased privatisation. Eight sectors — coal, minerals, defence production, airspace management, airports, power distribution, space and atomic energy— are opened up giving a red carpet welcome to private entry at the cost of employment and life of workers in those sectors. It was rightly pointed out by AITUC general secretary Amarjeet Kaur that “the government is using the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to implement its political agenda. Unions in the mining sector and ordnance factories were already opposing the moves to privatise and the government had deferred the decisions. But now, if unions go on strike, the government will portray them as a hindrance to the COVID-19 economic measures.”

The third tranche, comprising financial, legislative and reform measures aimed largely at increasing the pricing power of farmers – or share of profits in farm incomes — aggregating Rs 1.63 lakh crore did not contain any direct cash transfer programme for farmers, or money in hand, leaving the farmers once again in the lurch. Farming, the largest source of livelihoods, which supports nearly half of all Indians, is given the wrong medicine to cure the ills.

The three reform proposals that include amendments to the 1955-vintage Essential Commodities Act would effectively hollow out the legislation by deregulating cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onions and potato. The other two proposals seeking to bypass the APMC regime through a central law that would allow farmers the freedom to sell across State borders and a framework for them to enter into pre-sowing contracts that would purportedly help assure them of offtake volumes and prices once enacted will only boost market forces without necessarily safeguarding food security, with the effect of ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’.

Unveiling the second tranche of the stimulus as part of ‘Self-reliant India Mission’ to cushion the impact of Covid-19, the finance minister announced three measures for the distressed migrant workers. Firstly, migrant workers, who are neither National Food Security Act (NFSA) nor State Card beneficiaries in the state they are stationed, will be provided 5 kg of grains per person and 1 kg Chana per family per month free for two months. The ‘One Nation One Ration card’ scheme under which migrants will be enabled to access PDS from any Fair Price Shop in the country by March 2021. Thirdly, affordable rental accommodation will be provided to these workers and urban poor under the PM Awas Yojana. All seem to be only aimed at wooing the migrants and poor to remain stationed and continue serving the elites as the ‘necessary evils’ of an urban life.

The first tranche announced on May 13 was to alleviate the distress in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector that lies at the heart of the industrial ecosystem and employs an estimated 11 crore persons, including much of the country’s migrant workforce. While the 16 specific announcements in the first tranche cut across sectors that range from MSMEs and NBFCs to real estate and power distribution and the salaried class, the overarching theme was that of infusing liquidity and engineering a pass-through effect that ultimately puts more disposable funds in the hands of both entrepreneurs and employees. If the governments and companies pay up the dues in full, things would have been different and for that there should be government that has a clear-cut policy perspective and not flip-flops.

Any failure to plug the weaknesses in the public health delivery system can thwart all efforts at reviving the economy. It is high time that the Centre and states invest in universal health coverage (UHC) by reversing the financial neglect of public healthcare. Kerala’s successful fight and containment of the virus is because of its deep and wide network of effective health system that has been in existence for long.

The Rs20-lakh-crore economic package announced by the prime minister is in effect peanuts as he had added all that had been provided for in the budget or announced by RBI and other agencies. The actual amount is only a fraction of the 10 per cent of the GDP that he has claimed. It will be around one per cent plus or minus, as pointed out by experts and political parties. The prime minister has thus misled the nation, which obligates him to tender an apology to the nation before the next Parliament session begins. Also, the public at large is awed by the government’s silence for over seven weeks before coming out with an aggregate sum that fools the public.

The way forward is not going to be easy as the government is still groping in the darkness, despite a central bank that dances to its tune even at the cost of its autonomy. The only hope now is the ensuing assembly elections, which will surely make a dent into the ruling party’s prospects, loosening its grip on the upper house. (IPA Service)