Senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has come down heavily on Finance Minister P Chidambaram for “playing fraud” in budgets on several occasions by accounting jugglery and transferring funds in dubious ways.
Terming Chidambaram as “cleverest Finance Minister” since 1991, Sinha on Friday said on several occasions the Finance Minister adopted wrong ways in accounting to present rosy picture on economy by hiding the actual GDP figures. The veteran BJP leader was countering Chidambaram’s recent attacks against him.“I may have been the worst Finance Minister after 1991, but I did not commit fraud. Chidambaram has been the cleverest Finance Minister since 1991 and has played fraud on the budget not only this year but always,” said Sinha in a detailed rebuttal to Chidambaram.
For the past week, Sinha and Chidambaram were locking horns on the economic situation during the past 10 years.“I am not the only person who is questioning Chidambaram on these figures. AK Bhattacharya in an article published in Business Standard on April 30, 2014 had not only said as much but also referred to the fact in his 1997-98 budget Chidambaram had targeted a fiscal deficit of 4.5 per cent of GDP. When I presented the budget for 1998-99, the deficit had ballooned to 5.8 per cent. He concluded with these words, “likewise, it seems the real story of the actual fiscal deficit for 2013-14 would be revealed when the next Finance Minister presents his budget for 2014-15”. I may have been the worst Finance Minister after 1991 according to Chidambaram, but what about the likes of AK BhattacharyaIJ,” pointed out Sinha.
The BJP leader said the next Government would bring white paper to expose Chidambaram’s lies. “Chidambaram had presented the interim budget for 2014-15 on February 17, 2014. The actual accounts up to February were released by the CGA on April 3, 2014. Within six weeks the veracity of the figures presented by Chidambaram has been questioned by his own agency. Instead of challenging me on facts, Chidambaram has decided to attack me personally. let me remind him that it is not my tenure in the Finance Ministry which ended twelve years ago, which is in question. It is the performance of Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh on the economic front which is under question in this election,” he said.
Citing the figures, Sinha said Chidambaram had diverted subsidy bills and diverted funds of PSUs to present good picture of GDP. “Chidambaram is achieving his fiscal deficit target by savagely cutting the plan or productive expenditure of the Government. He has also milked the cash rich PSUs, and forced tax payers to pay more advance tax in FY13-14 which will have to be refunded this year. According to reports, he has also transferred a subsidy bill of at least `60,000 crore more to the upstream oil companies like ONGC, Oil India and GAIl. He is also wrong about the quarter to quarter payment of subsidies. According to media reports, a subsidy expenditure of `40,000 crore has been postponed to next year in addition to the payment due for the fourth quarter. If I am wrong, let Chidambaram come out with the total subsidy expenditure figures for last year and the actuals which have been paid up to 31st March, 2014,” said Sinha.