Kolkata, Feb 1 (IANS) The CPI-M leadership on Thursday termed the proposals of the Interim Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as an attempt to "enrich the rich by squeezing the poor".

As per the statement, although the revenue receipts in 2023-24 exceeded the budget estimates and grew by 13.3 per cent compared to the previous year the Union government expenditures have been squeezed below budget estimates in order to reduce the fiscal deficit.

"These expenditures have grown by only 7 per cent, less than even the nominal growth of GDP, which is officially expected to be 8.9 per cent. This shortfall in expenditure has taken place despite the establishment expenditure of the government being higher than budgeted.

"The axe has, therefore, fallen on expenditures on welfare schemes as well as on capital expenditure. This will negatively impact future growth and economic fundamentals,” the statement read.

According to it, expenditures on several items like agriculture & allied activities, education, health, social welfare and schemes like the PM Krishi Sinchai Yojna and umbrella schemes for SCs, STs and other groups have been kept below budgeted levels.

According to the CPI-M leadership, the squeezing of Central government expenditure and the relative ‘improvement’ of revenues has taken place against a background of extremely poor growth.

It claimed that the estimated "real" growth of 7.3 per cent in 2023-24 is pure fiction, among other things, being based on the absurd proposition that the inflation rate has come down to barely 1.6 per cent in 2023-24.

"This is completely at odds with the inflation rates based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is around 6 per cent with food inflation of around 10 per cent," the statement read.

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