Seizing on a ‘disconnect’ between the budgets presented by former Finance Minister and now President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, just last year and the one presented by P Chidambaram this year, the opposition turned the knife where it knew the government would not be able to defend itself: two lines in the Finance Minister’s budget speech.
“In the budget of 2012-13, the estimate of Plan expenditure was too ambitious and the estimate of non-plan expenditure too conservative,” Chidambaram had said in his speech, in the context of government spending and added: “Wisdom lies in finding the correct level of government expenditure”. Interpreting this as implied criticism of the previous Finance Minister’s handling of the economy, opposition leader Venkaiah Naidu said: “The government is the same, the Prime Minister is the same. So was the government right then (in 2012-13)? Or is it right now (in 2013-14)? Pranab babu deserves better”.
Barring this, the opposition was unanimous in its criticism: that the 2013-14 budget had nothing for the poor, very little for farmers and relied on tokenism for the benefit of women. Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said it was actually a budget that would push up costs for the poor, especially when read in conjunction with the Railway Budget which visualised an increase in freight rates with concomitant effects on the cost of commodities transported by rail.
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Sinha said four challenges: fiscal deficit, price rise, current account deficit and reviving investment, found hardly any remedial treatment in the budget. Instead, there was excessive reliance on foreign investment.
The budget was also slammed by two of its most important allies: the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi party (SP). Speaking to Business Standard, Dimple Yadav said: “There should have been much more for farmers. It is not an effective budget at all”. Mayawati said that allocations for the underprivileged, especially scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes had been increased but the money never reaches the states. “The government has tried to give an impression that by taxing the rich, it is pro-poor. But its other policies are anti-people,” Mayawati said in the context of the new surcharge on the rich.
By contrast, several Congress leaders, including Jairam Ramesh, who was anticipating a big cut in his rural development budget but has got a hike upwards of 40 per cent, were pleased. The Finance minister made clear that the criteria for defining “backwardness” would be redefined- a longstanding demand of the Rural Development minister Minister of State for Home, RPN Singh said Finance Minister Chidambaram had kept his balance in the “tightrope walk”. Singh also tweeted that he was # Proud of our FM. # He added, that the “budget which is inclusive yet focuses on sustainable growth. Highlights are the emphasis on women,the young and the poor.”
Congress leaders across the board outrightly rejected the Opposition charge that it was a “budget targeted at the polls” and populist. Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni while describing the budget as progressive and growth-oriented wondered how only 42,800 people in the whole country had admitted to being under the super-rich tax bracket. “There will be many more that number in south Delhi alone,” said Soni. In her view, more people in the super-rich bracket needed to be brought under that tax net.
Law minister Ashwani Kumar welcomed the “social upliftment initiatives” in the budget as well the first public sector women bank and the Nirbahaya fund. He said that such measures were reflective of the UPA’s focus on women and the girl child.
Senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandes welcomed the initiatives in the budget for farmers and the farming sector in the area of finance and credit – agricultural credit target had been upped to Rs 7 lakh crore. In addition to that private sector scheduled banks would now give agricultural loans and to farmers could avail of the benefits of interest subvention.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’ s pet concerns rural development and youth got a fillip in this budget. the Finance minister made clear that the criteria for defining “backwardness” would be redefined- a long standing demand of the RD minister. While the Opposition described as a ‘lacklustre’ budget, Congress leaders even from the states were confident that aam aadmi sops like the Rs 10,000 crore for the Food Security bill, the Direct Benefits Transfer rollout across the country by 2014 – will all help them in the countdown to the polls.
