Budget 2013-14: Thumbs up from PM, thumbs down from opposition

New Delhi, Feb 28: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has praised the union budget presented by finance minister P Chidambaram while the opposition parties and outside supporters like SP and BSP have slammed it for being low in substance.Hailing the budget, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said it would reverse the pessimistic mood and lay the roadmap for investments as he expressed confidence of returning to eight per cent growth within three years.Singh listed fiscal deficit, inflation and current account deficit as three barriers that can affect the realisation of the growth potential of the economy.“Given the formidable challenges facing our economy, the Finance Minister has done a commendable job,” the Prime Minister said in an interview to Doordarshan soon after the presentation of the General Budget for 2013-14.“The Finance Minister has taken important steps to reverse pessimistic mood with regard to investment climate, with regard to the growth potential and possibilities of our economy,” he said.Singh said India needs to accelerate the tempo of growth to create jobs for its growing labour force to the extent of about 10 million persons every year.“We need, as the 12th five year plan has mentioned eloquently, a growth rate of about eight per cent. This is a growth rate which is consistent with our underlying potential,” he said, adding it was a difficult task which cannot be achieved in a single year.Singh said the Finance Minister has laid out a roadmap which has “plenty of food for every ministry to chew there”.Expressing confidence that India could return to eight per cent growth within three years, Singh said all ministries needed to work together to convert the challenges identified by the Finance Minister into opportunities.“It is up to the collective wisdom of my council of ministers to convert these challenges into opportunities to accelerate the tempo of growth, to make it more inclusive, to make it more sustainable,” Singh said.Noting that the economic survey had pegged the growth rate between 6.2 and 6.7 per cent, Singh said “in three years' time, if we work hard and the world economy also improves, we should get back to 8 per cent growth rate in two to three years time”.He flagged three “barriers”—fiscal deficit, inflation and current account deficit—that can affect the realisation of the growth potential of the economy and said there was a need for a multi-pronged strategy to tackle these.Admitting that inflation had gone “out of hand”, he said the budget has outlined the path to bring fiscal deficit under control which could help rein it.“The Finance Minister has charted a path to bring fiscal deficit under control. And if he succeeds in that course, I think he would have created a better climate for growth, better climate for investment and we would have also created a climate for lower latent levels of inflation that we have had in the last two years,” Singh said.He favoured reduction, in the medium term, in the country's dependence on imports of iron, coal, gold and petroleum products to tackle the problem posed by current account deficit.“This is a medium term objective. This can be achieved by reducing unwanted imports, partly by boosting the country's exports,” Singh said.On problems faced by projects on account of clearances of various sorts, Singh said the government was committed to use the mechanism of the Cabinet Committee on Investments to clear the roadblocks to investments.“We have committed ourselves to use the mechanism of Cabinet Committee on Investments to grapple with these tensions which exist in our system and to ensure that these roadblocks, whether they are in environment clearances or forest clearances or other roadblocks, are dealt with so that these roadblocks can be cleared,” Singh said.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday said the general budget was "verbose" and lacking in substance."The budget is verbose but on substance, extremely low," said leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley."First put the economy in distress; then a helpless finance minister comes out with a budget in which he had very little elbow space," Jaitley said.According to him, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had "made cosmetic changes in different heads of taxation or different expenditure". He added that the minister had indulged in a "little bit of jugglery, by marginally increasing taxes in certain ministries and substantially reduces expenditure".Jaitley said the budget contained little to offer a boost to agriculture or manufacturing sectors, which are vital for sustainable growth.Samajwadi Party and BSP, outside supporters of UPA government, today slammed the Union Budget, describing it as “anti-farmer, anti-worker and anti-poor” with Mulayam Singh Yadav vowing to oppose it in Parliament. “This budget has completely ignored the farmers. It is only meant for 10 per cent population, while the interests of 65 per cent engaged in farming have been ignored. SP will oppose the Budget in Parliament,” Yadav told reporters outside Parliament.Yadav, however, remained non-committal on what would be the manner in which his party would oppose the Budget or whether SP will vote against the Finance Bill, saying, “That will be decided by the party.”BSP chief Mayawati said that the Budget was drafted to “confuse” the common man and there was nothing new in it. All announcements made seem “lofty” and “in the air”, she said. “There is nothing new in this Budget and neither anything for farmers, employees and the middle class,” she said, adding that the policies of the central government are not in the interest of the common man and are “anti-people”. The SP chief questioned the government as to “for whom it is making the Budget if it is offering nothing for the poor, the farmers and the workers”.He said that the country would have developed long back had Congress been giving good Budgets. “The Budget will not lead to growth. Only those 10 per cent rich people will grow,” he said.Mayawati said despite large allocations for the SCs/STs in every Budget, the money has not helped improve the plight of people from lower castes.Asked if Finance Minister P Chidambaram had passed the test, she said, “Had he done so, I would not be standing here to criticise it.”Mayawati said despite large allocations for the SCs/STs in every budget, the money has not helped improve the plight of people from these communities.“All central governments, be it of UPA, NDA or Congress, show an increase in budget allocations for SCs/STs but had this amount been spent on the people of lower castes their plight would have much improved,” she said.Asked if Chidambaram had passed the test, she said, “Had he done so, I would not be standing here to criticise it.”Naidu said, “Even in flagship programmes, allocations are meagre. The entire budget speech of the Congress Finance Minister has forgotten even the aam admi. This is only like denting and painting.”He said no section will be happy in the budget. “Neither the common man nor the middle class and businessman will be happy. They have bankrupted the economy,” Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) said, “They are targeting, women, youth and poor and for women Rs 1000 crore, youth scheme for employment. About the poor they would like to set up a welfare fund but that is not decided.”He said the budget shows, the government has given a tax concession of Rs 68,000 crore which is Rs 7000 crore more than last year.“There is no intention of levying additional revenue. He is levying addition tax for only one year and subsidies have been withdrawn,” Dasgupta said.He said the finance minister has not talked about oil prices which will rise further and inflation will go on unabated. “Therefore it a lollypop budget. There is nothing to rejoice,” he said.JVM(P) MP Ajay Kumar, however said “It's an okay budget. Given the financial constraint it is okay. Truthfully speaking there was no other alternative.”

Budget 2013-14: Thumbs up from PM, thumbs down from opposition

New Delhi, Feb 28: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has praised the union budget presented by finance minister P Chidambaram while the opposition parties and outside supporters like SP and BSP have slammed it for being

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