CMP too costly to fund

The budget would fail to raise resources to finance the common minimum programme (CMP), panelists said at a budget discussion organised by the Centre for Economics and Taxation Studies (CETS) and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Financial analyst Abhijit Sen questioned the revenue projections and said the cost of only one of the points in CMP like the employee guarantee would cost Rs 70,000 crore, which was double the total tax collections.

Finance minister had kept only Rs 10,000 crore for implementation of CMP. Sen said, "Funding the CMP will not be possible."

Alak Ghosh, former head of economics department at Calcutta University, pointed out the absence of a delivery system for the budget proposals.

S S Kothari, former member of Parliament, said that the finance minister had to formulate the budget amidst many constraints.