Expect budget with dressed-up numbers, says Chidambaram
NEW DELHI: Days before the presentation of the union budget, the Congress demanded a large fiscal stimulus in the form of a direct cash transfer that will put money in the hands of people, but said it feared that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present “dressed-up” revised estimates for 2020-21 to build an attractive narrative for the coming fiscal year.
At a press conference, former finance minister P Chidambaram said the government should make direct cash transfers to 20-30% of the families at the bottom of the pyramid for at least six months. The Congress floated a similar plan in its poll manifesto in 2019, NYAY, short for Nyuntam Aay Yojana.
But the party said it worries that the basis for Budget 2021-22 could be rosy estimated for the current year that do not reflect reality. “We are afraid that the FM will present a dressed-up Revised Estimates for 2020-21 and attempt to build an attractive narrative for 2021-22. The RE for 2020-21 will be a set of false numbers and, therefore, the BE for 2021-22 will be a conjurer’s illusion,” Chidambaram said, reading out a party statement with senior Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Mallikarjun Kharge by his side.
Sitharaman will present the union budget in Lok Sabha on Monday. The budget for 2020-21 began to unravel within weeks of its presentation, Chidambaram said, noting that the Congress, even at that time, pointed out that assumptions behind the budget were wrong and targets mentioned were unattainable.
To be sure, India and the world were in a different place when the budget was presented on February 1 last year. It was only in midmarch that the pandemic started gaining ground in India.
“Even without the pandemic, the economy would have continued on the downward path that had begun in the first quarter of 2018-19 and continued for eight successive quarters. The pandemic pushed the economy into an abyss — minus 23.9 % contraction in Q1 of 2020-21 and minus 7.5% in Q2,” Chidambaram said. The government has not responded to the Congress’ allegations.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, said on Thursday that the economic recovery post Covid is strong and spread across all segments. The party’s national spokesperson on economic affairs, Gopalkrishna Agarwal, said, “Good economics makes good politics. This has been the Modi government’s mantra. If economy grows we will have the support of the common people...we are expecting a dream budget.”
(with PTI inputs)