According to an official order, the first leg of the Budget Session is scheduled to conclude today in an extended sitting of the Upper House till 3 p.m. The sitting for Saturday is cancelled. It was earlier decided that the Session would conclude on February 13 instead of on February 15.

The second leg of the Session will commence on March 8.

Here are the updates:

Rajya Sabha | 11.40 am

Bhupender Yadav of BJP says, “I thank PM Modi that in these challenging times too he brought us a Budget of hope.”

He accuses the Opposition of misreading statistics to create fear among people. He counters Congress leader P. Chidambaram’s remarks from yesterday, and says that it is intellectual dishonesty to quote numbers out of context.

Rajya Sabha | 11.30 am

Shaktisin Gohil of Congress says  a mother does not discriminate between her two sons, doesn’t tell her younger son to become aatmanirbhar. “But this government wants the poor to be aatmanirbhar but provides protection to friendly corporates. “

“You present lucrative schemes but with a terms and conditions. You said senior citizens do not have to file income tax but then terms and conditions were applied,” he says.

“You have zero duty on scrap imported from foreign countries, but slap 2.5% duty on scrap collected here,” he adds.

“40% tax has to be given to States, so this government is slapping cess that has not to be shared with States.”

“I want to explain how the mandis will be shut if farm laws are implemented? whenever you sell a product you have to pay tax to APMC, if products are sold outside and tax is not paid, how will APMC survive? Don’t assume that farmers are fool, they have understood,” he says.

“India cricket team that won in Australia comprised a Hindu, Sikh, Christian and a Muslim. We won because of this unity. They want to break this,” he says and the Treasury Benches object to his religion reference.

“Manmohan Singh had constituted a committee of which CM Narendra Modi was the head. He had said in the report that MSP should not be removed. Now that same person, after become PM is misquoting Dr. Singh and Shard Pawar,” he says.

Rajya Sabha | 11.20 am

Binoy Viswam of CPI says this government will become the executive committee of the Bourgeoisie. You have given bhoomi, akasham, pathalam… all for FDI. This government is for FDI.  The market model has failed everywhere, including the USA,” he says.

“You put sanitation, health, and nutrition under one basket and claim there is a hike in allotment. There is actually a decease of allocation in the times of pandemic,” he says.

Rajya Sabha | 11 am

Ashok Siddharth of BSP says the Budget does not offer anything for a large section of the people of the country. “There is no reservation in private sector. Will the government provide reservation benefits to SC/ST who will be left out if banks and other public sector units are privatised by the government?” asks Mr. Siddharth.

“Bring reservation in private sector to benefit 25% SC community members. Government is saying 1 lakh 26 thousand crore allocated for SCs in the Budget, but this should be increased.”

Rajya Sabha | 10.45 am

Abir Ranjan Biswas of TMC says there has been no explanation of sector-specific revival of the economy. “The Budget allows for unbridled growth of corporates. This government is for, by and of the capitalists,” he says.

“They intend to privatise two more public sector banks, but haven’t mentioned which ones.”

“LIC has been sacrificed at the altar of crony capitalists,” Mr. Biswas says.

“The Rs. 100 crore package announced for tea plantation workers in Assam and West Bengal has come down to Rs. 2,000 per worker for the entire year. There are 5 lakh such workers,” Mr. Biswas says.

M.V. Shreyams Kumarof LJD says the Budget has shown anger and false sense of ego. “There has been a 34% reduction in Budget in comparison with the previous one,” he says. He asks that MPLADS fund be reinstated.

Rajya Sabha | 10.30 am

Discussion on Union Budget continues

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will respond to Budget discussion at 2 p.m. in Rajya Sabha, says Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.

MoS Finance Anurag Thakur speaks now.

“There has been a 34.4% increase in capital expenditure in this Budget. We have set a target to make India TB free by 2025,” he says.

“Why did you privatise the six airports and gave it to two particular families?” the minister questions the Congress government’s policies.

Referring to former PM Manmohan Singh, he says, “Doctor saab was an honest man but there was no department under him where there was no corruption.”

“Why is the middle class aspiring to buy houses?” the Minister asks, adding, “because we exempted them from income tax returns for a year.”

“The Budget allocation for PM-Kisan scheme was slashed by Rs. 10,000, said a TMC member. I will tell you why it was slashed. It was slashed because the West Bengal government did not provide names. Democracy has died in West Bengal.”

“We are committed to doubling the farmers’ income.”

“Why did you not create agriculture infrastructure in past 65 years? How can agriculture cess increase the price of diesel and petrol? Where is it written in the farm laws that mandis will be shut and MSP will be withdrawn?” the Minister asks.

“You want negative news to run,” he alleges, addressing the Opposition.

“India was among the five most fragile and worst economies in the world when we came to power, but under the Narendra Modi government, India is among the top six economies in the world,” he says.

Rajya Sabha | 10 am

Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti says during COVID-19, migrant labourers would not have got work had it not been for MGNREGA. “There has been no proposal by the Centre to increase 100-work days under MGNREGA. The States can increase. Kerala and two other States have done it.”

“In M.P’s Morena, how many are eligible under MGNREGA,” asks Ramgopal Yadav of SP. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, says 14 crore job cards have been issued under MGNREGA. “10 crore people are working, and women participation is 52%. I can provide district wise data later.”

On being asked about the surge in demand in MGNREGA, Minister Tomar says, “whenever demand is created, efforts are on to meet the demands. The Budget has increased, Rs. 1,11,000 crore has been allocated and Rs. 90,000 crore has been disbursed to the States.”

Responding to a suggestion of having systems in place for inspection of safety of railways bridges, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal says, “there are 34,665 bridges in the Indian Railways which are more than 100 years old. We have a scientific system of inspection.”

Union Minister Rameshwar Teli says two mega food parks have been sanctioned in Gujarat.

Union Agriculture Minister Tomar, on being asked if the government intends to give subsidy on diesel to farmers, says, “We have given Rs. 80,000 crore subsidy on fertilisers and also on solar pumps …our intention is to ensure that farmers’ income increases.”

“The three farm laws are a step in the direction to increase farmers income,” says MoS Agriculture Kailash Chowdhury.

“There is no such category as COVID-19 vaccine and for the Commerce Ministry to come out with a code for only that type of vaccine is not our mandate. The export of COVID-19 vaccines started only in January. There has been no significant increase in the overall export. 15 million dollar increase only. Rupees 338 crore worth of export of COVID-19 vaccine,” says Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.

Question Hour ends.

Rajya Sabha | 9.30 am

Question Hour begins

Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu presides over the sitting on February 12, 2021.
 
| Photo Credit: RSTV