'Attack On Livelihood': Farmers' Group Declares Countrywide Protest Against Budget 2025

New Delhi: All India Kisan Sabha has called for a “united protest” against Union Budget 2025 on February 5, Wednesday, after the Union Finance Minister on Saturday tabled the Budget. The Sabha, while calling the Budget anti-poor and tailor-made for corporate cronies and the rich, also declared the burning of the copies of the budget.

In an announcement signed by Ashok Dhawale and Vijoo Krishnan, the President and General Secretary of the Kisan Sabha, the farmers’s group stated that the Budget is an attack on the livelihood of farmers, workers, and the poor. Noting that even as the contribution of agriculture and allied sectors to the GDP has increased to 16 percent, it pointed out that the budget allocation for agriculture and allied activities is lower than the revised estimates of 2024-25.

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“While the revised estimates of 2024-25 were Rs. 376720.41 crores, the 2025-26 allocation is only Rs. 371687.35 crores. When inflation is accounted for, this is a huge cut in allocation. Real expenditures for agriculture and allied activities have steadily fallen since 2020-21,” the organization observed, emphasizing that the farmers are not the priority of the BJP-led NDA government.

Notably, the MSP for which the farmers have been organizing protests for years was also not mentioned in the budget. “There is nothing in the budget to ensure a legal guarantee of MSP, expand procurement, or free farmers from indebtedness. Even the Parliamentary Standing Committee recommendation to ensure remunerative prices has been thrown to the winds,” the release elaborated.

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Noting the allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA), the organization pointed out that the budget has kept the fund at just Rs 86,000 crores in an “extremely insensitive manner.” The MGNREGA was launched in 2005, aiming to provide employment and earnings to the rural population.

“There is no emphasis on the generation of employment in the countryside. The government is stopping all funds to the National Institute for Rural Development, and there is zero allocation in the budget for it; this also is a telling reflection on the BJP-led NDA government’s apathy towards rural development and the rural poor,” the letter highlighted.

Stating that the food subsidy is lower than the allocation made in 2024-25, the Sabha noted that the allocation for distribution of pulses to State/Union Territories for Welfare Schemes is zero, adding that the last budget had allocated Rs.300 crores.

The farmers’ organization observed the exemption of income tax up to Rs. 12 lakh as an eyewash for electoral gain, adding that increasing prices, high levels of indirect taxation, and increasing food, health, education, and travel expenses will all bring to nought, if at all, any benefit accrued through this exemption.

Moreover, the allocation to the Flagship Programme of the Government, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for crop insurance has seen a drastic cut from Rs.15,864 crores to Rs.12,242.27 crores, the letter pointed out,  underscoring that there has been no increase in allocation to the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi.

It then drew to the huge cut on fertilizer subsidy from Rs.171298.50 crores to Rs.167887.20 crores, a cut of Rs.3,411.30 crores. “The hollow claim of a six-year initiative of the Atmanirbharata Mission for pulses is exposed when the total allocation for the mission is merely Rs. 1000 crores. This claim ironically comes from a government that just 10 days ago extended duty-free imports of arhar/tur and is incentivizing farmers in Mozambique and other countries,” the letter said.

Noting that the imports of pulses almost doubled to 60 lakh tonnes (between January and November), the Kisan organization said that there is nothing new in the claim that NAFED and NCCF will procure pulses for the next 4 years to ensure price stability. The claim only exposes the fact that the private sector will not be willing to buy at MSP, the group alleged.

“A Dhan Dhyan Krishi Yojana has been announced, claiming that it will cover 100 districts with low yields and benefit 1.7 crore farmers, but there is no separate allocation for it. It only is a rehashing of existing programs. No allocation has been made for the Price Stabilization Fund for Rubber or for mitigation of the Wild Animal Menace,” the letter concluded, appealing to all units of the organization to participate in the protest and burning of budget copies on February five.