The Opposition on Wednesday hit out at the Budget saying it was “a damp squib” with no measures detailed for job creation , farmers, poor and it “lacks in clear vision and direction” with no proposal for accelerating manufacturing. The main Opposition party Congress, in fact said, the figures offered by the Government in the Budget were “doubtful”.
The Opposition also accused the Government of bringing the Budget proposals keeping in mind the Assembly polls in five States and indulging in jugglery of words and numbers. However, the government’s proposal to cleanse political funding by bringing in transparency found favour with most of them.
“We were expecting fireworks, instead it was a damp squib,” lashed out Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. On Rail Budget, he said, “Modi had promised the bullet train. Where is the bullet train nowIJ Railways’ fundamental problem is safety. It is just ‘sher-o shayari’ in the budget. There is nothing for farmers and youth and nothing for job creation. There is no clear vision.”
Highlighting the need for employment creation, Rahul said, “The main issue facing India today is creation of jobs. “How are you going to solve that problemIJ On that front there was nothing. No vision, no idea and for farmers absolutely there is nothing,” he said. Rahul, however, supported the proposal on political funding. “Whatever steps are to be taken to cleanse political funding, we will support it,” he said.
Rahul said, “The Prime Minister had promised in his speech last year to give two crore jobs for youths. There was nothing in the budget for poor, unemployed and farmers. It is shameful. Farmers are suffering and there is a need for waiving their loans. There was nothing in the budget. These are fundamental issues.”
Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the budget is lacking in direction and has no proposal for accelerating manufacturing or job creation. “Figures given by government are doubtful. Projections for the full financial year are based on the data of 6 months”, Shama said.
leader of Opposition and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, criticized a combined presentation of the union and railway budget. “Railway Budget ko main budget mein merge karne se uski identity chali gai. Badi machhli chhoti macchli ko nigal gai”, he said.
Another Congress leader Manish Tewari said, “The budget is high on rhetoric and short on delivery. There is a fundamental contradiction between enhanced public expenditure and the fiscal deficit cap”.
The CPM described the union budget as “complete gimmick” and full of ‘jumlas’ (rhetoric) that would neither help in expanding domestic demand nor increase employment but burden the people as the government aims at “substantially” hiking indirect taxes to raise resources.
“The Finance Minister has joined the Prime Minister and the BJP president in producing ‘jumlas’. And this budget is a classic example of that,” party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury told newspersons here.
Maintaining that the budget was “completely opposite” to the recommendations of the latest Economic Survey that the Government should look inwards and bolster domestic demand, he said, “This is a contractionary budget and not an expansionary one... It’s a complete gimmick.”
Yechuri detailed data from the budget document and said revenue expenditure as a percentage of GDP was 13.36 per cent last year, compared to 12.74 in 2017-18. “This year’s budget includes the revenue of Railways also, which was not there in 2016-17... So compared to the last budget, the revenue has declined substantially,” he said.
While capital expenditure in 2016-17 was 1.86 per cent of GDP, this year it was 1.84 per cent, including Railways, and 1.51 per cent without Railways, the CPI(M) leader said.
On Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s remarks about fiscal consolidation, Yechury said the fiscal deficit has come down to 3.2 per cent from last year’s 3.5 per cent. “This decline is due to the major hike in excise duty on petroleum products. The revenue receipts have gone up substantially due to this.”
“If you are expecting a nine per cent less revenue this year and your fiscal deficit is also less, it means that your expenditure has contracted,” he said, adding “that’s why it is a contractionary budget”.
He said There is not a single word on recovering the massive NPAs (non-performing assets of banks), though the government would only act against those who have fled abroad,” he said, adding that the NPAs amounted to Rs 11 lakh crore while the “entire budget is Rs 24 lakh crore”.
JD(U) MP and former party president Sharad Yadav dubbed it “direction-less” even as he attacked the government for not waiving off loans of farmers who are “reeling under financial problems”. BJD leader in lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab wondered from where the revenue would come for the government at a time when the manufacturing growth is coming down.
NCP’s Tariq Anwar said the budget was way below expectations and had nothing for farmers and youth. Party leader Supriya Sule too noted that the budget did not offer anything to farmers. “It is a government of U-turn,” she quipped.