 "P Chidambaram, Chidambaram, Union Budget, Budget, Jaitley, Congress, Randeep Surjewala")
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday criticised the Union Budget for 2017-18, and said the government failed to push through bold reforms.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Budget in Parliament on Wednesday. Chidambaram also said the government had done nothing to revive aggregate demand and growth and devise new strategies to create job.
The former FM said going through the 37-page Budget speech of finance minister Arun Jaitley and the 21-page appendices was a painful duty but he presented a point-by-point counter to the proposals.
“Demonetisation and its inevitable consequences has demoralised the government,” said Chidambaram.
There was nothing in the Budget for people most affected by demonetisation, such as farmers, farm workers, manual labourers, artisans and micro, small and medium businesspersons, who lost money in wages, incomes and capital, he added. “Despite the Congress pressing the government to compensate them, there was absolutely nothing in the Budget.”
He added that Jaitley had totally neglected farmers and the government seemed oblivious to their plight.
Taking a dig at the ruling National Democratic Alliance’s promise of creating 20 million jobs per year, Chidambaram said, “Their best result so far was 150,000 jobs in 2015-16. There is absolutely nothing in the Budget that points to a change of strategy to create new jobs.”
Stating that gross fixed capital formation has declined since the NDA government took power in May 2014 — from 4.9 per cent in 2014-15 to 3.9 per cent in 2015-16 and 0.2 per cent in 2016-17 — Chidambaram said the Budget had no mention or strategy or policy measures to revive private investment.
Noting that the growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) has taken a hit because of the global situation, inadequate policies and ill-conceived demonetisation, the former finance minister said the Budget did not specify how to revive flagging growth.
He said cutting indirect taxes, especially excise duty and service tax, was the best way to boost aggregate demand. “The government foolishly rejected this option; it would have provided immediate relief many people,” he added.
Chidambaram also said, “I am afraid the country will pay a heavy price in terms of poor demand, lower sales, fewer jobs and closures of micro, small and medium enterprises.”
He, however, also had a few words of praise for Jaitley. Some of the proposals he complimented were limiting cash donations from one source to political parties, setting a Rs 3-lakh ceiling for cash transactions and setting a target of 10 million house for the poor by 2019.
