Mitra also said currency demonetisation has led to closure of small industries and left hundreds jobless across the country
West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, on Wednesday, staged an angry walkout from a pre-Budget meeting saying there was 'financial emergency and 'political environment of fear' in the country.
Mitra, who was in full attendance at the two-day meeting of the GST Council chaired by Finance minister Arun Jaitley that ended today, said the Union Budget had become a "meaningless" exercise after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation on New Year's eve, made announcements similar to a Budget presentation.
He said that before walking out, he made the Union finance minister, who had called the meeting, hear the expectations of the states on his fourth budget to be presented on February 1 and also make him aware of the "financial emergency" imposed by demonetisation and the job losses it has led to.
"I wanted the finance minister to hear the reality on the ground, the financial emergency in the country, the political environment of fear all around," he told reporters after emerging from the meeting.
Mitra also said currency demonetisation has led to closure of small industries and left hundreds jobless across the country, including the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states.
While the leather industry in West Bengal has completely collapsed, closure of 12 lakh powerlooms in Maharashtra had led to workers returning to their native places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana.
In case of Maharashtra, the red chilli industry has collapsed, falling by 30-40 per cent; while in Nagpur, oranges industry has collapsed, he said.
Photograph: PTI Photo
