Budget lacks vision, offers no growth prospects: Oppn in LS

Opposition today criticised the general budget as one lacking in vision and offering no growth prospects, as it again targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he "followed" Pakistan in deciding on demonetisation and launching a surgical strike "on our own people".
Congress leader Veerappa Moily initiated the debate in Lok Sabha on the Union Budget 2017-18 in which he picked holes in the government's economic policy and targeted Modi over a host of issues, like in the past few days.
Attacking the government over demonetisation, he said it has offered no gain for the common man on whom "the State was unleashed". While Modi and other BJP leaders have already begun toning down on the issue in their election speeches, they have not done so in Parliament due to "false pride".

Reasons like fighting corruption, black money and fake currency cited by Modi to justify demonetisation were the same given by Pakistan when it took a similar decision in June 2015 and no other country which has done so ever gave such reasons, the former Union Minister said.
"It dawned on the Prime Minister that Pakistan has taken a right step. Let's follow it. For the first time, we have followed Pakistan. It is unprecedented... It is not worth following Pakistan," he said.
Criticising the budget, he said the time was ripe for a forward-looking budget but it turned out to be a timid one, without any will power or vision to take the country forward.

Moily said his party supported merger of plan and non-plan funds and railway budget with the union budget, saying these were good steps forward but the exercise was "messed up". "We are not fundamentally against it."

Praising certain aspects of the Economic Survey prepared by Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, he said there was no synchronisation between it and the budget and while the survey spoke of certain concerns, the budget did not address them. Subramanian, he said, was the only economist in the government.
Noting that the Survey presented before the first budget of the Modi government had said that fundamentals were very strong and the legacy was good, he said the attack on the UPA government over its handling of the economy was political or what many people say 'jumla'.

Demonetisation hit informal sector hard and caused job losses which was not addressed by the budget, he said.
Moily said while Indira Gandhi by nationalising banks had
brought banking to the doorstep of the people, the Prime Minister is taking away banks from the poor.
"This is committing debauchery with the currency... People who oppose your policies are criminals, black marketeers and anti-nationals, while people who support your policies are called patriot," he said.
At the time of demonetisation, the government had estimated that about Rs 5 lakh crore will not return to the banking system, but now not even Rs one lakh crore has stayed out, the Congress leader said.

"Money in circulation cannot be called black money. I don't know who is advising you. Government is deaf regarding the problems caused due to demonetisation," Moily said.
Criticising the government's contention of moving towards a cashless society, he said except Sweden, there is no other country which has a cashless economy.
Quoting data, Moily said in India, the share of cash in consumer transaction in India is 98 per cent, in US, it is 55 per cent, 44 per cent in UK and 90 per cent in China.
"You have shaken the trust of the people and now you are not lifting the withdrawal curbs because you fear there will be a run on the banks. The less cash economy is a disaster... I hope one day there will be an apology in Parliament for the demonetisation move," he said.

With regard to the budget proposal of merging oil companies, Moily said the government wants to destroy all the profit-making oil companies.
Government had expected a windfall of Rs 4-5 lakh crore
on account of demonetisation but as much as Rs 15 lakh crore has come back into the banking system, the TMC leader said, adding that demonetisation has "harmed the economy".
He said the Budget had increased the total expenditure by only 6 per cent to Rs 21.46 lakh crore, which is less than 10 per cent increase every fiscal.
"Jaitley was faced with the difficult task of lessening the adverse impact of demonetisation and had to give sops to middle class," Roy said.

He said there is no measure in the budget to increase employment and MNREGA allocation should have been increased by 10-15 per cent to generate employment in rural areas.
With regard to changes in rules for donations to political parties, Roy asked "which person will go to banks, disclose their identity and buy bonds? This is not the way... There should have been state funding of elections".
BJD MP Prabhas Kumar Singh said his party was expecting a "big bang budget" to give relief to people hit by demonetisation. Various taxes collected by state governments declined by 11 per cent due to demonetisation, while mining royalty recorded a 40 per cent decline.

He also demanded waiver of farm loans and increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP). Citing the Economic Survey, Singh said of the total loan defaulters, 71 per cent was done by top 50 Indian companies.
Jaidev Galla (TDP) lauded the "historic" merger of railway budget and general budget as also the capital tax gains relief extended to people whose land has been taken to build Amravathi, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. He sought special benefits for AP in terms of taxes, as given to Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha.
Backing the government's demonetisation move, Galla said to curb the menace of black money, Rs 2000 notes should be scrapped and Rs 200 notes brought in instead.

A P Jithender Reddy (TRS) asked the Centre to start an AIIMS in Telangana, as promised under the States Reorganisation Act. He also demamded that the state be allocated more IPS and IAS officers as the number of districts has gone up.
He also sought two batallions of central forces to deal with the Maoist problem on the Telangana-Odisha border and lamented that the bifurcation of the High Court was still pending.
P Venugopal (AIADMK) backed the government for advancing the budget date and merging the finance and railway budgets.
Karunakaran slammed the government for "inadequate"
allocation for key sectors like health and education. He said capital expenditure of 1.84 per cent of GDP in 2017-18 was less than 1.86 per cent in the current fiscal.

The CPI(M) leader also referred to the Economic Survey to say that there will be a decline in farm growth and joblessness and attacked the government for not passing the benefit of low global crude prices to the people.
As against a Schedule Caste population of 16.6 per cent, the budget allocation for their welfare was just 2 per cent, while for 8.6 per cent ST population, the outlay was just 1.48 per cent. The CPI(M) member also demanded that the Women Reservation Bill must be tabled in Lok Sabha at the earliest.
Mithun Reddy (YSR Congress) said the government must fulfil the promises made during reorganisation of Andhra Pradesh and sought declaring it as a special category state.
Reddy, Karunakaran and a number of other MPs also raised the issue of farm distress and many of them demanded total loan waiver for farmers.
Sharad Tripathi (BJP) took a potshot at the Congress for calling the government a "suit-boot sarkar" and said "those known for suitcase brand of politics are now talking about suit-boot ki sarkar. Does a son from a poor family not have the right to wear a suit? He (Modi) is drawing respect across the world. Why can't he wear a suit."
He also attacked the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh for "failing" to implement various centrally sponsored schemes in the state.
Earlier when Moily was speaking, Congress leader
Mallikarjun Kharge rose to ask him to cite all the measures the UPA had taken to curb black money, a point he wanted to make earlier in the day but was not allowed by the Speaker.
Kharge had come prepared to speak about a day after the Prime Minister had hit out at Congress for doiing nothing to root out black money during his reply to the debate on Motion of Thanks on the President's Address.
As Kharge turned to Moily, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sensed an opportunity to take a jibe at him. "You had done so much that it took you 24 hours to realise this while Moily has still not realised it," he said wryly.
Attacking the budget, Moily said it showed there was no synchronisation between various departments of the government, and between the economic survey and its contents. Hardly anything has been done for health and education sectors.
Taking a dig at Modi, he said besides his regular 'Mann ki Baat', he should have 'Kaam ki Baat' for his government.
Later, Prem Singh Chandumajra (SAD) asked the government to implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission on the farm sector which suggested that the minimum support price should be above 50 per cent of the cost of production.
Asserting that the states like Punjab in the bordering areas were suffering, he asked the government to provide incentives to such states.
Welcoming the demonetisation drive of the government, H D Deve Gowda (JD-S)) said the government will have to take further steps to remove black money.
He also wanted to know how much employment has the government provided over the last two-and-half years.
"To what extent you (government) have created jobs," he asked, adding that if not, then what have been the reasons for the same.
Drinking water, he said, still remains a problem in Karnataka and requested the Finance Minister to take steps to save the farming community.
Suresh Angadi (BJP) said the Union Budget 2017-18 was a "budget for all" as everyone has been benefited from it. "This budget is for middleman, poor, farmers and woman," he added.
He urged the finance minister to reduce service tax on plastic money and said tax defaulters would be punished as there were stringent laws for it.
Agadi, who was praising the government, was interjected by Gowda who said that "I don't (referring to Agadi) think" that all the work has been done during the tenure of Modi.
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Slamming the government for merging the Rail and General Budget, N K Premachandran of RSP said the government has violated the convention of the House.
"I would like to put this on record" that the government merged the Rail and General Budget without following the proper rules and procedure, he said. "I am seeking a ruling on this," he said.
He also said that the Budget has not addressed the concerns of the Economic Survey.
He added that the government is claiming that it has extended more funds to states but they have given "by the right hand and taken from the left hand".
Expressing disappointment over the budget, Sirajuddin Ajmal (AIUDF) said it was announced in the backdrop of elections and "north east was totally neglected".
He demanded that Assam should be declared as economically backward area; allocation of funds for reopening of airports in the state; separate national policy for creation of employment in Assam and setting up of a campus of Aligarh Muslim University in the state.
Santosh Kumar (JDU) said the government only talks about big businessman and not about small farmers.
Rajesh Ranjan demanded that children of all politicians should attend government schools and go to government hospitals for treatments.
C K Sangma (NPP) suggested that government should increase the budgetary allocation of the North East region.
Comparing Congress with lizards, Chitamani Malviya (BJP), they hide behind portrait of Gandhiji after swallowing insets.
Chotelal (BJP) sung a song in praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the policy of the government.
The other members who participated in the debate include Ram Kumar Sharma (RLSP) Ranjeet Ranjan (Cong), Neiphio Rio (NPF), Ajay Mishra, Ganesh Singh, Nihal Chand, Kirit Solanki, Rattan Lal, and Chandulal Sahu (BJP).