Budget fails test of economic strategy: PC

Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday said the Union Budget 2026-27 fails the test of economic strategy and economic statesmanship. Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, he said the government and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seems to have completely discarded the Economic Survey and fallen back on their “favourite pastime of throwing acronyms at people”.

Noting that the Union budget presented this year is not a bold exercise in fiscal prudence and consolidation, Chidambaram said the revenue deficit remain stationary at 1.5 per cent. “There is nothing wrong with borrowing and spending. But the government should do fiscal consolidation quite rapidly and not as being done at the current rate,” he noted.