New Delhi: The Union Budget is pro-corporate, anti-poor and filled with slogans, with huge concessions to foreign investors, the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) said on Friday. In a statement, the AITUC said the Budget provides tax holidays and other incentives to foreign investors. Ease of doing business has been put into top gear. Every field of economic activity has been thrown open to private capital, whether foreign or domestic, from space, energy, finance, transport to retail trade, health and education, it added.

It also said the policy of disinvestment of public sector units continues more vigorously and the loud claim of collecting Rs 1,05,000 crore from disinvestment has been announced. The attack on public sector banks is severe and in the name of consolidation, 47 state-owned lenders are ultimately to be converted into seven banks through mergers. The privatisation of railways, defence and other PSUs is also the direction stated in the Budget, it added.

The union also said the Budget, full of rhetoric and slogans, means another round of setbacks to working people and farmers, and is devoid of any commitment to free them of indebtedness.
It pointed out that there is not a word about irrigation, which is the dire need of agriculture. The announcement for converting 44 labour laws into four codes is carried from the earlier NDA stint and is against workers and employees, it added.

"The superficial nationalism of the ruling combination is reflected in jingoistic announcements of One National One Grid, One Nation One Tax, One Nation One Card. On the whole, the budget, as expected, is pro-corporate and anti-working people," it added. Meanwhile, the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) said, "There are certain proposals mentioned in the Budget which needs to be discussed with Trade Unions."

These are FDI policy, public private partnership and disinvestment, among others, it added.