Reacting to KCR’s statements that there is no policy in the budget, IT Minister Sridhar Babu said that there will be policy for everything in one-year timeframe. In a chat with mediapersons in the Assembly lobby, Sridhar Babu said that every department will have a clear policy. “We have come to power eight months ago and three months have gone in elections. We will come out with it.”
When asked to react on the non-tax revenues, Sridhar Babu said that the opponents may try to sabotage their plans. He asked “Why didn’t KCR talk about the Central budget and lack of allocations to the State”.
On the sidelines, Sridhar Babu released a statement, criticising the Central budget announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, particularly targeting the proposal to raise Rs 50,000 crore through the disinvestment of public sector undertakings (PSUs). Sridhar Babu likened this to selling one’s own children, highlighting that it was the Congress governments that established these PSUs. In his statement, Sridhar Babu pointed out that the BJP government, instead of establishing new PSUs, is seeking to profit by selling stakes in the already profitable ones. He noted that, excluding banks, the annual profits of PSUs amount to Rs 2,64,000 crore. He mentioned that it was the late Indira Gandhi who nationalised banks to make them accessible to the poor and last year alone, these banks contributed Rs 2.11 lakh crore in dividends to the Modi government.
Sridhar Babu condemned the sale of stakes in profit-making entities, describing it as selling valuable assets to the private sector at low prices. He stated that even PSUs currently running at a loss possess significant assets whose value exceeds their debts. Despite this, the Modi government’s aggressive push for disinvestment is a betrayal of the Indian people, he added.
