The Hindu : An irresponsible exercise, says Congress; Laloo calls it a lollipop

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004

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An irresponsible exercise, says Congress; Laloo calls it a lollipop

By Our New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI, FEB. 3. The interim budget presented by the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, came under attack from the Opposition, which termed it as an "exercise of irresponsibility" to "hoodwink" the people, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Telugu Desam Party predictably praised the effort.

The Congress said the interim budget was "disappointing" for everybody except the rich who had got concessions earlier and said there was "nothing substantial" in the proposals.

It said the budget was silent on the most important problem of unemployment and had only promises in regard to farmers, the rural sector and the poor. For the middle class, it said, contrary to widespread expectations about a hike in the income tax exemption up to Rs. 1 lakh, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government did not offer any concession.

"Failure to raise the income tax limit has substantially diluted the other concession of merging the dearness allowance with basic pay," the party chief spokesperson, S. Jaipal Reddy said.

The party also charged that Mr. Singh's claim of reduction in fiscal and revenue deficit was based on "statistical jugglery." Fiscal deficit came down in proportion to increase in the Gross Domestic Produce due to a good monsoon and not better management, it said. The rising inflation was going to be a problem, the Congress said and expressed doubts about the promise to make loans available to farmers at nine per cent interest in the absence of institutional infrastructure.

The Congress said it would move cut motions when the interim budget comes up for discussion and passage tomorrow. "We will move cut motions, there will be a debate," Mr. Reddy said and charged the Government with having "violated constitutional norms" for refusing to call it a "vote-on account."

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) dubbed the interim budget a "fraudulent exercise" whose basic objective was to appease certain sections of the population in return for their electoral support.

"These proposals are an exercise of irresponsibility by a Government that will shortly cease to exist. Clearly, the people must be prepared to face a significant dose of economic burdens when all the sops announced so far by this Government will have to be accounted for," the CPI (M) politburo said.

The CPI said that having already decided to dissolve the Lok Sabha and go for an early election, the Government had been resorting to the "unethical course of announcing sops in instalments''.

``The mini-budget is one more instalment ... these are all election-oriented measures to hoodwink the people," the party central secretariat said in a statement.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, Laloo Prasad Yadav, described the budget as a "lollipop meant to fool the people". He also ridiculed claims of a "feel- good factor" prevailing in the country. "Kisans are committing suicide, the number of unemployed is going up, it is only the RSS which is feeling good," he said.

The Bahujan Samaj Party MP, Raashid Alvi, said the thrust appeared to be to woo the voters. "They are making all these promises because they know they won't be around to implement it," he said.

The CPI(ML) criticised the Government's "non-serious" approach towards the ongoing peace process by allocating Rs. 25,000 crores for defence modernisation. It condemned the Government's "nefarious design to use" the Constitutional bodies like Parliament for "narrow election interests."

The BJP welcomed the interim budget saying it would add to the feel-good factor prevailing in the country.

The party spokesman, V.K. Malhotra, said it "was good, given the limits of an interim budget."

Mr. Malhotra commended the Finance Minister for his proposal to merge the DA with the basic pay and pointed out that this could not have been done earlier because the DA went up this year. He also welcomed the promise to review the standard income tax deduction and the proposal to raise the ceiling of the tax exemption limit.

The interim budget stood out for its promise to make loan available at nine per cent interest for farmers and the proposal to give kisan credit cards, he said. He also welcomed the move to set up a 25,000-crore non-lapsable defence modernisation plan.

The BJP spokesman said the Opposition was unhappy because today's announcements favoured the poor and the middle class.

The budget came in for some praise from K. Yerrannaidu, Leader of the Telegu Desam Party in the Lok Sabha. "It is an excellent budget and will provide an impetus to development." The Government deserved to be complimented for the increase in the revenue collection and the reduction in the rate of inflation, he said.

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