
New Delhi: The Congress Saturday welcomed the announcements on income tax rebates in the Union Budget but claimed that the Centre had “run out of ideas” to achieve its ambitious goal of making India a developed nation.
According to the party, the economy will likely “trudge along on the old path” and only achieve a growth rate of about 6-6.5 percent in 2025-26.
At a press conference, senior Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram said the BJP designed the budget to appeal to the middle class and voters in Bihar, which will go to polls later this year.
“Who are the tax-paying return filers? Only 3.2 crore people in this country pay taxes. A little over 8 crore people file income tax returns, but the majority of these file nil returns. So, 3.2 crore people will benefit from the relief, which I welcome. But what about the remaining 141 crore people?” Chidambaram asked.
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The veteran Congress leader emphasised that the vast majority of Indians continue to face hardship, with the budget offering no substantial measures to improve their lives.
“Wages remain stagnant. In rural India, the household monthly per capita expenditure is Rs 4,122, which is roughly Rs 140 a day. In urban India, it is Rs 230 a day, or Rs 7,000 per month. This is the reality for most people. While I welcome the relief for 3.2 crore taxpayers, what relief is offered to the remaining 141 crore people?” he added.
Congress Lok Sabha Deputy Leader Gaurav Gogoi also argued that the tax rebates would not influence voter behaviour in Delhi. “If the government thinks that one announcement can make people forget their current difficulties, they are mistaken,” he said.
Earlier in the day, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget in the Lok Sabha, opposition parties staged a brief walkout after Speaker Om Birla rejected their demand for a discussion on the stampede at the ongoing Maha Kumbh mela, which claimed at least 30 lives and left many others injured.
Chidambaram further criticised the government’s economic outlook, claiming that the economy would likely deliver no more than the usual 6 or 6.5 percent growth in 2025-26. He said that the government’s goal of making India a developed nation would remain a distant dream unless the growth rate surged to at least 8 percent annually.
He also slammed the government for “ignoring” Chief Economic Adviser Anantha Nageswaran’s advice to deregulate and reduce its intervention in economic activities to free up space for entrepreneurs, start-ups, and MSMEs. “The chief economic adviser’s call was to ‘get out of the way’. But instead, the budget is full of new schemes and programmes, many of which are beyond the government’s capacity,” Chidambaram said.
According to Chidambaram, the government is sticking to a “worn-out path” and has failed to follow the bold economic reforms seen in 1991 and 2004. “It is the bureaucracy that will be pleased with this budget. The government’s grip on people’s activities is getting tighter,” he added.
‘Cruelest cuts’
Chidambaram also pointed out discrepancies in the budget’s numbers, noting that revenue receipts were lower by Rs 41,240 crore, while the revised net tax receipts were Rs 26,439 crore less than expected.
On the expenditure side, Chidambaram stated that total expenditure had been cut by Rs 1,04,025 crore, with capital expenditure seeing a reduction of Rs 92,682 crore. He highlighted that sectors such as education, health, social welfare, and agriculture had suffered the most from these cuts.
He also referred to the “cruelest cuts” in allocations for SC, ST, OBC, and minority communities, saying there was little to celebrate despite the government improving the fiscal deficit from an estimated 4.9 percent to a revised 4.8 percent. “This was achieved at a huge cost to the economy,” Chidambaram added.
“Those who did not believe us when we said that the economy is slowing down will, I hope, believe us now. Those who did not believe us that the government’s capacity to plan and implement schemes has diminished will, I hope, believe us now,” he concluded.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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