'India gets services like Somalia but pays tax like...': Raghav Chadha slams Union Budget 2024

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha hit out at the Union government over its Budget 2024-25 and said that citizens of the “pays taxes like England to get services like Somalia”. 

In a scathing criticism of the Union Budget, the AAP MP also said that the government’s move to remove indexation benefit on sale of old property will encourage inflow of black money. 

In his address to the Parliament on July 25, Chadha asked the government to do a comprehensive review of the tax framework and making eight suggestions for it. 

“In the last 10 years, the government has sucked the blood of the common people of the country by imposing taxes,” he said, adding “And what does the government give us in return...? That is why today I have no hesitation in saying that we in India today pay taxes like England to get services like Somalia”. 

The AAP MP also claimed that all sections of society were displeased with the Budget, including BJP supporters. 

Holding the economic policies of the government responsible for its significantly reduced number of seats in the Lok Sabha, he said, “BJP’s seat share had dropped from 303 in 2019 to 240 in 2024 as the people had imposed 18 percent GST on the seats”. 

“Many reasons are given for this... I tell you three reasons due to which BJP has faced this plight: economy, economy,” Chadha said. 

The MP also highlighted “decadal low growth in rural income in the financial year 2023-24. He attributed the reason behind this to “rising rural inflation, rural unemployment, low crop yield, income inequality, farmer debt, high input cost, low income, no MSP and crop losses”.  

“Along with this, there was a promise to double the income of farmers, there was a promise to give MSP as per the Swaminathan Commission. As those promises were not fulfilled, the rural wages have been on the decline continuously since the last 25 months,” Chadha added. 

During the discussion on the Union Budget 2024-25 in Rajya Sabha, the MP urged the Union government to roll back their decision, saying that people will never be able to buy their “dream homes”. He argued that the proposal will lead to excessive corruption in real estate, and the investments in the sector will go down. 

“Restore indexation on long-term capital gains. Throughout the world, to woo investors to invest they are incentivised. In this country, by removing indexation we are disincentivising the investor class,” he said, adding that removing indexation is not imposing tax but it is equivalent to “penalising investors”. 

The AAP MP's eight suggestions for a comprehensive review of the Budget are:

• Index minimum wages with inflation.
• Rework the agricultural pricing formula, that is, when a farmer goes to sell his crop in the open market, there should be a minimum reserve price.
• Legal guarantee to MSP in accordance with the Swaminathan Commission report.
• Restore indexation on long term capital gains.
• Incentivise financial savings in debt, equity, mutual funds, bank deposits and financial investments.
• Review, revise and simplify GST and also reduce GST in export- oriented sectors.
• Discriminatory federalism, not cooperative federalism and giving more to all states.
• GST compensation stopped for the states to be given for at least for five more years.