The BJP on Monday trashed the Government’s interim Budget. Party president Rajnath Singh on Monday described the ‘Vote on Account’ presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram “a failed attempt to gloss over the failures of the UPA Government”.
“ He juggled his numbers to come up with a fiscal deficit of 4.6 percent for the year 2013-14. He rolled over fuel subsidies worth Rs 35000-crore to next fiscal to arrive at a better looking fiscal numbers”, Singh said.
He said even his fiscal deficit target number of 4.1percent for 2014-15 is not credible as he has kept the total subsidy bill at Rs 2.46 lakh crore which is the same as this year without even accounting for the Rs 35000-crore as rolled over fuel subsidy. “Revenue deficit of 3.3 percent clearly indicate that the Government has not made any effort to contain its fiscal profligacy”, Singh said.
The UPA Government has been able to match its fiscal targets only by drastically cutting its planned expenditure. It means the Government has reduced its investments in the economy, the BJP President said. Reacting to the budget presented by Chidambaram, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said it was an “electoral imperative” for him to attempt to repackage the 10 years of the UPA.
“He inherited an 8.5 percent GDP growth rate. He exits on a 4.5 percent GDP growth. The last three years of the UPA witnessed a sharp fall in the growth rate from a near 9 percent to less than 5 percent. He, therefore, had to lean back on larger slogans such as his ‘Idea of India’. Obviously, in an ideologically pluralistic society, there can be more than one ‘Idea of India’. None can usurp the title of a book and claim it only belongs to him”, Jaitley said.
He said Finance Minister had set a laxman-rekha for himself last year. The fiscal deficit had to be brought down to 4.8 percent. “He now claims to have brought it down to 4.6 percent. He achieves this spectacular feat not by bringing in revenue buoyancy or by reviving the investment cycle but by cutting down expenditure, particularly the capital expenditure”, BJP leader said.
He said the grants for creation of Capital Assets and Capital Expenditure has been cut down by as high as Rs. 91,000 crores. “This alone would have impacted the GDP to the extent of 0.8 percent. Similarly, allocations to various Ministries in the current year shows wide difference between the Budget estimates 2013-14 and the Revised Estimates of 2013-14”, he said.
“Even though the Vote-on-Account is only for a period of four months, there are serious concerns on the growth rate, real Fiscal deficit, inflation, investment and the slow down in manufacturing sector. The stability of the Rupee is a matter of concern particularly because the Rupee itself has reached unacceptable levels. Will the Finance Minister seriously introspect on the legacy he would leave behind for the next Finance MinisterIJ , jaitley asked.