NEW DELHI, Feb 1:
Asserting that the Union Budget was a “let down like never before”, the Congress today claimed that it will unravel soon, and described the imposition of cess on petrol and diesel in the budget as “vengeful act” against the thousands of farmers who took out the tractor rally.
The opposition party said it was a case of “wrong diagnosis and prescription”, and that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman could have been “brave” by extending help to the poor, but chose to be “timid”.
Attacking the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Narendra Modi Government plans to handover India’s assets to crony capitalists while his party colleague P Chidambaram said Sitharaman “deceived” those who were listening to her speech, especially the MPs, had no clue that she has imposed cesses on a large number of products including petroleum and diesel — Rs 2.50 on petrol per litre and Rs 4.00 on diesel per litre.
“It was a vengeful act against the thousands of farmers who took out the longest tractor rally in history. It was also a cruel blow to federalism because the States do not get a share of the revenue from cesses,” the former Finance Minister said while addressing a press conference.
He said this was a “cruel blow” to the average citizen, including farmers.
“She deceived the people of India, especially the poor, the working class, the migrants, the farmers, the industrial units that had been closed down permanently, and those who had lost their jobs, both regular and informal, and are still looking for jobs,” he alleged.
Reading out a party statement, Chidambaram said Sitharaman did not mention defence at all, “as if the Chinese had vacated occupied Indian territory”.
She did not mention that the defence expenditure in 2021-22 will not see any significant rise, he said.
“The FM had promised a budget ‘like never before’. Her mandate was to present an annual statement of revenue and expenditure for 2021-22. What she did, however, was to estimate expenditure over 2 years or 3 years or 4 years or, in one case, over 5 years,” he said.
She made a reference to the Prime Minister 14 times and to the farmers 11 times, he pointed out.
“The budget was a let down like never before. This budget, like the previous one, will unravel sooner than you think,” he said. (PTI)
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