budget

Ritabrata Banerjee’s Speech in Rajya Sabha on Rail Budget

Rail is a public transport. Public transport must have public characteristics. Public transport cannot be sustained without budgetary allocation and support. That has been the world wide experience.  Paradigm shift from the fundamental conception of Indian railways being a public transport has taken place in this budget.  Looking at railways as essentially commercial entity is fundamentally wrong.

Punjab: March to Assembly

Four Left Parties of Punjab – CPI, CPI(M), CPM Punjab & CPI(ML) Liberation will hold  a massive march to assembly during the budget  session on 28th March, 2016 to  focus  the realization of 15 points agenda  programme for democratic development of Punjab. It was decided in a meeting of the State Coordination Committee of the Four Left Parties held here today at Chandigarh on January 11.

Kerala: Attack On Protesters

The UDF government unleashed unprecedented storm of violence inside and outside the Kerala Legislative Assembly, injuring hundreds of people including MLAs, in a shameful attempt to get the Budget for financial year 2015-2016 placed in the Assembly by tainted finance minister K M Mani. Throwing all legislative norms and decorum to the winds, K M Mani, who is accused of various corruption allegations, read out the first page of the Budget when the Speaker was not present on the dais. Mani was standing in the fourth row of treasury bench, guarded by UDF legislators and a large number watch and ward staff.

On Union Budget

The CPI(M) considers that the Union Budget 2012-2013 is a regressive budget which will result in pushing up prices and imposing greater burdens on the working people. The bias towards the corporates and the rich in this budget is seen from the fact that while the direct taxes being levied from the rich will result in a loss of 4500 crores rupees, that from indirect taxes, that is through the increase in across the board service and excise duties, is expected to yield a gain of 45,940 crores. While the CPI(M) welcomes taxes on luxury items, it strongly opposes the reliance on indirect taxes for revenue mobilization as this will lead to a cascading impact pushing up prices across the board.