The Union Budget for 2023-24 is “callous” and has betrayed the hopes of a vast majority of Indians, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said on Wednesday while putting forward the Congress party’s response to the last full Budget of the Narendra Modi government before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge took to Twitter and claimed that the Budget was “big on announcements and short on delivery” and accused the BJP government of making the common man’s life difficult.
Tweaking the Union government’s theme of Amrit Kaal, former party chief Rahul Gandhi called it a mitr kaal [friend’s era] Budget that didn’t have a roadmap to build India’s future.
Addressing a press conference at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters, Mr. Chidambaram said the Budget “shows how far the government is removed from the people and their concerns about life, livelihood and the growing inequality between the rich and the poor”.
He asserted that no tax has been reduced in the Budget except for the small number of people who will opt for the new tax regime. By making the new tax regime as the default option, he said the government wants to “rob the ordinary tax payer of the meagre social security that he may get under the old tax regime”.
“The ultimate aim of the government is that tax exemptions should be abolished. Tax exemptions give some social security to the middle class today. If tax exemptions are abolished, then there must be another mechanism by which the tax payer gets some social security,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
“Who is benefited by this Budget? Certainly, not the poor. Not the youth looking desperately for jobs. Not those who have been laid off. Not the bulk of the taxpayers. Not the homemaker. Not the thinking Indians who are shocked by the growing inequality, the rise of the number of billionaires and the wealth being accumulated in the hands of the 1% of the population,” added the former Finance Minister.
The senior Congress leader pointed out that neither the indirect taxes have been reduced nor has there been any cut in the Goods and Services Tax (GST). There has been no reduction in the prices of petrol, diesel, cement, fertilizers among others and the numerous surcharges and cesses, that are not shared with the State governments, also continue to exist.
Though the Economic Survey listed all the headwinds that the world is going to face, the Budget did not offer any solution. “The Budget speech did not even acknowledge the headwinds and the government is living in its own imaginary world,” he said.
The former Finance Minister noted that three stark facts are being acknowledged the world over: global trade and growth will slow down significantly in 2023; many advanced economies will go into a recession and with the Ukraine war and other brewing conflicts, the global security situation will deteriorate.
“If all three materialise, what will the government do? What kind of burdens will that place on the people who are suffering owing to inflation and unemployment? There were no answers provided either in the Economic Survey or in the Budget speech,” Chidambaram said.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “Last year’s Budget drew applause for allocation towards agriculture, health, education, MGNREGA & welfare of SCs. Today the reality is evident. Actual expenditure is substantially LOWER than budgeted. This is Modi’s OPUD strategy of headline management—Over Promise, Under Deliver”.
