Rajya Sabha: Former Finance minister chidambaram targeted the government, said - the Union Budget is politically motivated
Former Union Finance minister P chidambaram said that the Union Budget 2025-26 was politically motivated. It was made keeping in mind the delhi elections. Also, the poor and lower class people were ignored in the budget. He accused Union Finance minister nirmala sitharaman of meeting the fiscal deficit by cutting capital expenditure and grants to the states.
Congress leader and former Union Finance minister P chidambaram on monday targeted the government in the rajya sabha over the Union Budget. He said that the Union Budget 2025-26 was politically motivated. It was made keeping in mind the delhi elections. Also, the poor and lower class people were ignored in the budget. He accused Union Finance minister nirmala sitharaman of meeting the fiscal deficit by cutting capital expenditure and grants to the states. Also termed it as bad economics.
The former Union Finance minister said that there is an element behind the budget, but that element and philosophy was not seen in this budget. It is clear from the budget speech and figures that there is no element in it. He said that it is clear that the budget was completely politically motivated. I would not like to talk about this in detail, but I will congratulate the Finance minister because he fulfilled one of his objectives.
He said that the daily wages under MNREGA could have been increased because the poorest section works in MNREGA only. Also, the minimum wage could have been increased for everyone under the Minimum Wages Act. Everyone could have benefited from this. But Finance minister nirmala sitharaman did not do so, because her focus was on income tax and delhi elections. Regarding the income tax exemption given in the budget, he said that nirmala sitharaman paid attention to the middle class, but what about the class which she forgot.
Presenting government data, chidambaram said that in 12 years between 2012 and 2024, food inflation rose to 6.18 per cent, education inflation to 11 per cent and health inflation to 14 per cent. indian families are now crippled as savings have fallen from 25.2 per cent to 18.4 per cent. According to the Household Consumption survey 2023, the monthly per capita expenditure of a rural family will be Rs 4226 and that of an urban family will be Rs 6996.
Chidambaram asked what did the budget do for the bottom 50 per cent and bottom 25 per cent indian families? Nothing. What relief did the Finance minister give them? He also said that in the last seven years, the wages of salaried male employees have fallen from Rs 12665 per month to Rs 11858 per month. The wages of a self-employed male worker have fallen from Rs 9454 per month to Rs 8591 per month. What is this situation? The situation is that income is falling, wages are falling. government spending is not in line with promises. There is a decline in domestic savings. Domestic debt is rising. The bottom 50 per cent of indian families are victims of misery. There is nothing for the bottom 50 per cent families in the budget.
He said that I do not want the rajya sabha to be divided in such a way that half of it speaks for the top 50 per cent and the other half for the bottom 50 per cent. I am very happy to speak about the bottom 50 per cent. I want to tell the ruling party to put pressure on their finance minister to speak about the bottom 50 per cent. The senior congress leader alleged that many schemes of the government like PLI, Make in india have failed. These schemes neither achieved the target nor could create employment. The biggest challenge facing the country is unemployment.
He accused Finance minister nirmala sitharaman of cutting capital expenditure to reduce the fiscal deficit from 4.9 per cent to 4.8 per cent. chidambaram said how did they achieve 4.8%? They cut the capital expenditure of the central government by 92686 crores. Not the revenue expenditure. They cut the grants given to the states for building capital assets by 90887 rupees. According to this, the capital expenditure in the center and the states was cut by 183568 crores. By cutting the capital expenditure, they saved 43785 crores in the fiscal deficit. The reduction in capital expenditure is understandable, but the savings made in the fiscal deficit are very big. He said that after cutting 183000 crores, they saved 44000 crores, is this a good plan? I don't know if this is good economics? I would say no, this is not good economics?
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