New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) Former finance minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram Saturday slammed the Union budget saying it was against the poor, had "cruel cuts" in allocations for weaker sections and favoured corporates.
Chidambaram told reporters here that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had left the economy on way to recovery but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had not acknowledged this in his budget speech.
"Unfortunately, the government refused to acknowledge the fact," Chidambaram said.
He said the additional borrowing by the government will not go in plan expenditure but in non-plan expenditure.
"Quality of a government is how much it is able to account for plan (expenditure)," he said.
He said the way the government "had bid goodbye to Planning Commission" it may "bid goodbye to plan itself".
Chidambaram said the budget had "cruel cuts" in allocations for the weaker sections.
He said allocations under some programmes such as scheduled caste sub plan, integrated child development services and national social assistance programme had come down compared to the current fiscal.
"There have been unjust cuts in these programmes. What is the government's leaning," Chidambaram asked.
He said the government's response to the poor seems to be that they should wait for growth to pick up and its effects to trickle down and fend for themselves till then.
"It goes against the ethos of the country. You must lean in favour of the poor. We do not find (that)," he said.
Chidambaram said poor sections do not get any relief in the budget but will be paying more taxes.
He said the budget was in favour of corporates and beginning next year, the corporate sector is slated to get a relief of Rs.20,000 crore every year.
IPL 2024: Batsman fell on the ground on Arjun Tendulkar's yorker ball, people asked- Is it, Ishan?
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians started their training camp almost two weeks before the start
The command of Twitter has now come into the hands of Elon Musk. After this, Elon Musk sacked sev
Where did the coronavirus originate? Did this virus spread from animals to humans or was it leake
Emergency in Sri Lanka: Entire cabinet resigns amid emergency, PM's son Namal also left all posts
The political upheaval in Sri Lanka has intensified amid the Emergency. The entire cabinet of the
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the review of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Ther
Violence has flared up in the West Bank following the death of two Israelis at the hands of a Pal
US intelligence agency CIA Chief William Burns said that raising concerns over the use of nuclear
Himachal Kullu Tourists Accident, Himachal Pradesh A group of 17 people who went to visit Jalori
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said- Congress has never been concerned with the interest of Devbhoomi.
Describing himself as a servant of Devbhoomi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the mountain
नई दिल्ली: रेलवे 15 अप्रैल से 3 मई के बीच
