NDA Govt.'s budget is 'unkind to the poor': Chidambaram

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday termed the Union Budget presented by incumbent Arun Jaitley as 'reeling in favour of corporates', adding that the government's proposals were anti-poor.

"Listening to the budget speech and reading it again in print, I am afraid that one cannot avoid the feeling that the budget reels heavily in favour of the corporate sector and the class that pays income tax. We have nothing against either but I think it's good to remind ourselves that a very large segment of the population of this country does not fall under the corporate sector or the class that pays income tax. The budget must acknowledge their concerns and attempt to deal with them. That is missing in the budget for 2015-16," Chidambaram told the media here.

"The kindest thing that I can say about this budget is that it is unkind to the poor," he added.

Chidambaram also alleged that Jaitley made 'cruel cuts' against the marginalised, despite professing to be working in favour of them.

"It appears that there have been some cruel, unjust cuts for sectors that look up to the government for relief and help. For example, for SCs, the allocation was Rs. 43,208 crore but now it is Rs. 30,851 crore. For STs, it was Rs. 26,714 crore and now it is Rs. 19,980 crore. The Integrated Child Development Services has gone down from Rs. 18,691 crore to Rs. 8,754 crore. The National Social Assistance Programme has gone down from Rs. 10,635 to Rs. 9,074 crore," he said.

"These programmes, which are meant for the people who are amongst the most disadvantaged, should have an increased allocation. While his speech swears by these programmes, there have been unjust cuts in them, which is why we say what is the government's leaning. Does it lean towards the poor? The answer appears to be no. In fact, the non-income tax payer has to pay more for goods and services," he added.

Earlier in the day, Jaitley presented the NDA government's first full-fledged budget in the Lok Sabha, saying that the economic environment in the country is far more positive than in the recent past, and added that the Centre's objective is to improve quality of life and to pass benefits to the common man.

The Finance Minister said that the government proposes to keep the fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent for year 2015-16, 3.5 per cent in 2016-17 and 3 per cent in 2017-18. He said Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be rolled out next year. The government is intending to achieve the fiscal deficit target of three per cent in the next three years.

The government also proposed to reduce corporate tax from 30 percent to 25 percent in next four years. Jaitley said taxation is an instrument of socio economic engineering and none filing of returns or filing of returns with adequate returns will attract rigorous imprisonment.