New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Farmer organisations Saturday slammed the Union Budget for "cruelly" neglecting their longstanding demand for a legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price for all crops and farm loan-waiver, and announced a protest on February 5 against the "anti-farmer, anti-worker, anti-poor and pro-corporate Budget".

In a statement issued here, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) said the Budget 2025-26 proposals for more deregulation and liberalisation, including a 100 percent privatisation of the insurance sector, are dangerous when the economy is facing serious challenges in the context of the intensifying corporate hegemony on all sectors including agriculture, manufacturing and services.

"The budget has cruelly neglected the long-pending demand for legally guaranteed MSP at C2+50 percent for all crops. This needs to be critically viewed in the context of an unchecked increase in corporate profits that amounted to Rs 10, 88,000 crore in 2022-23 and rose to Rs 14, 11,000 crore in 2023-24," the SKM said.

They also said no loan-waiver was announced for farmers, even as a Parliamentary committee had recommended it.

"During the last two years, scheduled commercial banks have written off loans to the corporates amounting to Rs 2,09,144 crore and Rs 1,70,000 crore... When farmers' movement is raising the issue of 31 farmers daily committing suicide in India due to indebtedness, the prime minister prefers to keep silent," the SKM said.

The SKM and the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions also said they will hold a protest on 5th February against the Budget.  "The SKM calls upon the farmers and the entire working people to come forward and protest against the anti-farmer, anti-worker, anti-poor and pro-corporate Budget 2025-26 on 5th February 2025 across India and burn its copies demanding withdrawal of all the anti-people proposals in it. Farmers while protesting independently will coordinate with the workers to spread the protest to maximum villages and towns," the farmers' group said.   The Samyukt Kisan Morch (Non-Political) and Kisan Majdoor Morcha (KMM), which are leading the sit-in protests along the Punjab-Haryana border, said the Budget led to disappointment among farmers.

"Farmer leaders said the population of farmers in the country is more than 50 percent, but out of the entire budget (Rs 50,65,345 crore), Rs 1,71,437 crore was given to the agriculture sector, which is only 3.38 percent," the SKM (NP) and KMM said.  They also said the MSP not being mentioned in the Budget despite the ongoing agitation is a huge letdown.  "Farmers are demanding MSP at C2+ 50 percent so that they don't need to take loans in the future. The government has instead increased the limits of Kisan Credit Cards to Rs 5 Lakh, which will further increase the burden of debt on farmers," they said.

The CPI(M)'s farmers' wing, the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), called it an anti-poor Budget tailor-made for corporate cronies and the rich.

"The Union Budget presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is anti-poor and tailor-made for the corporate cronies and the rich. Even as the contribution of agriculture and allied sectors to the GDP has increased to 16 per cent, the budget allocation for agriculture and allied activities is lower than the Revised Estimates of 2024-25," they said. PTI AO AO TIR TIR

Legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price demand amplified after Budget ignored MSP and farm loan-waiver, prompting nationwide protests. Farmer organisations criticised the Budget for omitting a legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price and a farm loan-waiver, alleging the measures favour corporate interests through deregulation and insurance privatisation, pointing to rising corporate profits and corporate loan write-offs while agriculture received a small share of the budget; they warned increased Kisan Credit Card limits will deepen indebtedness and announced nationwide protests.