Failed budget of a failed government in Haryana: Bhupinder Singh Hooda

Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday dubbed the Haryana budget, presented in the Assembly by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, as a "failed budget of a failed government".

There is nothing much in the budget and it has disappointed every section of the society, Hooda, the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said.

Khattar on Friday announced waiver of interest and penalty on certain crop loans and did not hike taxes as he presented a Rs 1.89 lakh crore budget for the 2024-25 financial year.

Criticising the government over the budget, Hooda said, "Everyone in the state will have debt on their head, responsibility will be only with the people, all employment will become private."

"The public was hopeful that since it was an election budget, at least in the announcement, people would get some relief this time from inflation, unemployment, exorbitant taxes and economic recession. But the government dashed the public's expectations," he said.

He said the BJP-JJP coalition came to power by making promises in the elections, but there is no mention of minimum support price (MSP) anywhere in the entire budget nor of bonus on MSP.

He said this time the increase in budget did not even match the inflation rate.

"The inflation rate of the state is 6.24 per cent, while the budget was increased by only 3.2 per cent. After factoring in inflation, this is not an increase but a reduction of 3 per cent," he said.

"The total debt of the government has been shown at Rs 3,17,982 crore in the budget, while the truth is that today the total debt of the state is Rs 4,51,368 crore," he said.

He said the government has claimed in the budget that it will spend Rs 55,420 crore on capital expenditure, while only Rs 16,280 crore is left after deducting loan instalments and advances, which is only 8.5 per cent of the total budget, which is completely insignificant.

No welfare scheme or big project can be started due to this. This also makes it clear that the government does not have any funds to implement the big announcements made in the budget, he claimed.

He said the opposition had demanded a loan waiver for farmers in the budget, but the government clearly refused it.

In his reaction to the budget, Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala said that they were hoping that with Haryana going to polls later this year, it will be a good budget, but it has turned out to be disappointing.

Abhay Chautala said the debt is "mounting", whereas "there is no development visible on the ground".

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, whose JJP is the BJP's ally, hailed the budget and said it will usher in all-round development.

The JJP leader said that the government has effected a hike in allocations in every department. On Khattar's announcement of waiver of interest and penalty on certain crop loans, he hailed it as a big relief for farmers.