Budget 2019 Reactions: ‘An account for votes’: P Chidambaram attacks interim Budget

Budget 2019 Reactions: Piyush Goyal, who was given the charge of the finance ministry after Arun Jaitley went to the US for medical treatment, presented the BJP-led government’s last budget before a general election due by May.

The BJP-led government acted “desperately and recklessly” and violated the Constitution by pushing its electoral agenda in the interim Budget, senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said on Friday.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday criticised the interim Budget presented by finance minister Piyush Goyal, saying it was just rip off of the Congress party’s ideas for the poor (Raj K Raj/HT File PHOTO)

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Acting finance minister Piyush Goyal announced tax exemption for the middle class, poured extra funds for distressed farmers and promised mega pension scheme for workers in the unorganised sector as he presented the Narendra Modi government’s election-year budget. The interim budget is being seen as the last big occasion for the BJP-led national coalition to deliver on its promises before the general elections.

Chidambaram was quick to point out that the government made the announcements in the interim Budget with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

“My one line comment on the Budget is that it was not a Vote on Account but an Account for Votes,” he said in a statement.

“It was a full-fledged Budget accompanied by an election campaign speech. By doing so, the government has trampled on time-honoured conventions. A government confident of returning to power would have respected the conventions. It is crystal clear that the government has no hope of returning to power and has, therefore, acted desperately and recklessly, and in violation of the Constitution,” he said.

Watch | It was a full-fledged budget with election campaign speech: P Chidambaram

The Congress leader accused the government of further weakening fiscal stability and missing the fiscal deficit target for the second successive year.

“The revised estimate shows a slippage from 3.3 per cent to 3.4 per cent. Worse, for 2019-20 too, the government has proposed an FD of 3.4 per cent. The government has thrown the FRBM Act out of the window. Similarly, the government will end the year with a Current Account Deficit of 2.5 per cent as against the CAD in the previous year of 1.9 per cent,” he said.

He called some of the announcement in the interim Budget “last-gasp announcements” by a government “whose term will effectively end in about 90 days.”

“The question that naturally springs to one’s mind is ‘if these were important and necessary interventions, what was the government doing for five years?’” he asked.

Amid a row over a recent report by the Business Standard newspaper about findings of an unpublished National Sample Survey Office’s figures for 2017-18 saying that unemployment rate has touched the highest level in 45 years, report, Chidambaram said the government was making “tall claims that no one believes.”

The news report that claimed that the NSSO survey, the first conducted after demonetisation, showed a sharp spike in joblessness in the country. It said the NSSO figures show that unemployment rate, which was 2.2% in 2011-12, rose to 6%.

“The overall impression one got from listening to the Budget Speech was that the government believed its own fake statistics,” he wrote.

“Every report from the field — from academics, NGOs, journalists etc — has exposed the false claims made in respect of ODF-free villages, domestic electricity connections, use of LPG cylinders and Mudra loans. None of the numbers put out by the government is true, but the government is so blinded by the dazzle of its fake numbers…” he said.

The decision to announce a Rs 75,000 crore income scheme for small farmers was also called “measly” by Chidambaram.

“The government’s desperation is proved by its announcement of the Farmers’ Income Support Scheme to provide a measly sum Rs 6000 per year to every small/medium farmer,” the Congress leader said.

“The new scheme is intended to help the farmer, but in reality, it will also help the absentee landlord. I would like to ask how the government will reach the money to the tenant-farmer and farm labourer who actually tills the land,” he said.

“I have no doubt in my mind that the Congress’ announcement of a Minimum Income Guarantee will bring true relief to all the poor households/families of the country, both farmer and non-farmer and both rural and urban.”

Chidambaram was also at miffed at Piyush Goyal for using both Hindi and English in his Budget speech and said it was just a ruse to confuse people.

“Those who knew only Hindi did not understand one-half of the Budget Speech and those knew only English did not understand the other half. Perhaps that was the real intention of the government: leave the people confused at least for a day. The mist that wraps this Budget will lift by tomorrow and the people will see the desperation and recklessness of the government.”

Read: No tax for annual incomes up to Rs 5 lakh: FM’s big budget sop in poll year

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