New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Friday lashed out at the Opposition and said that it is creating a “false narrative” about crony capitalism under the Narendra Modi government.
Replying to the discussion on Union Budget in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said the Opposition “unthinkingly” keeps throwing allegations, and went on to list the steps taken by the Modi government to improve access of basic services to the poor. “These steps are only helping only the poor…not the damaad (son-in-law),” she said.
Sitharaman’s remarks come a day after Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and P. Chidambaram attacked the government for its policies that they claimed only helped the rich.
Chidambaram had in the Rajya Sabha Thursday termed the Budget as “disappointing” and one “for the rich, of the rich and by the rich”. He also said that the Budget was meant for only “one per cent of India’s population that controls 73 per cent of the country’s wealth”.
Gandhi had also accused the government of following a “hum do humaare do” policy of favouring two “corporate friends” who were taking over Indian agriculture.
Sitharaman sought to counter this and listed the steps taken by the government for the poor, including provision of electricity to households under the Saubhagya scheme, construction of low-cost houses under the PM Awas Yojana, improvement of rural connectivity under the PM Gram Sadak Yojana, the farm insurance scheme as well as support to MSMEs through business opportunities in the government’s e-marketplace.
She added that the Budget is aimed at ensuring development, growth and reform.
“We are looking at medium-term and long-term sustainable growth which will ensure that India remains the fastest growing economy of the world. The budget is for Atmanirbhar India,” she said.
Govt brought in fiscal transparency
Sitharaman said the government has made an attempt to bring in transparency in the budgetary accounting mechanism and it has not followed the practice of “pushing things under the carpet”.
Referring to how the government has cleaned up its books and fully accounted for the good subsidy, the finance minister said the government has made an honest statement. She added that the government’s move to pay off the loans taken by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to the National Small savings fund (NSSF) will also help the FCI in improving its balance sheet and help in minimum support price-based food procurement.
In Budget 2021, the Centre had announced that it will discontinue the practice of FCI borrowing from NSSF to fund the food subsidy, a practice used to hide the true extent of the fiscal deficit. Due to this, the government’s fiscal deficit shot up to 9.5 per cent of GDP in 2020-21, and is expected to be at 6.8 per cent of GDP in 2021-22.
A dig at Chidambaram’s budgets
Sitharaman also alleged that some of the Budget numbers during Chidambaram’s tenure were also suspect. She pointed out that the 2007-08 Budget had claimed that the capital expenditure rose more than 60 per cent but the actual increase was only 9 per cent as the government had passed off a fiscally neutral transaction as capital expenditure.
She also said that the practice of issuance of oil bonds in lieu of cash subsidy during Chidambaram’s tenure as the finance minister was not a fiscally transparent move.
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