Empty coffers just an excuse being given by Cong; its FM incompetent: Sukhbir

Alleging that development works have come to a standstill in Punjab, the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal today said the Congress government just keeps giving an excuse that coffers are empty, whereas the truth is that its Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal is "incompetent".

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the budget for 2018-19 presented in the Assembly was "70 per cent replication of last year's budget speech".

"The Congress government has done nothing during the past one year and always takes the plea that coffers are empty...actually its Finance Minister is incompetent," he said.

Sukhbir said that even in some of the most advanced nations, debt is at a whopping 100-200 per cent of their GDP, but they never take the plea of mounting debt in carrying out development works.

 

"During 10 years of the SAD government, not even once we made the excuse that coffers are empty. Salaries were not delayed even for a day, welfare schemes were never delayed, but during the Congress's time development has come to a standstill," Sukhbir alleged.

Sukhbir said what the state government needs is a good Finance Minister "but what it has got is a bad accountant".

"A good budget and a good Finance Minister give fresh and constructive ideas while a bad budget and bad FM give only figures.

"A competent Finance Minister will have solution to all problems, but incompetent FM will only talk about problems, past problems, present problems, but he will not have solutions," Sukhbir said in the Assembly today while participating in the discussion on budgetary estimates presented by the Finance Minister.

Further taking a dig at Manpreet, the former Deputy Chief Minister said "most incompetent FM will fudge the figures."

"Assessment of any Finance Minister should be done by what he has said in his previous budget speech and how much of that has been implemented.

"If you take a look at last year's budget, it seems like 70 per cent of that has been reproduced in this year's budget," he said.

"This is not even a budget as it contains no vision of the government nor any road map to take the state forward. There is nothing new in it as it just repeats all the figures and fake promises presented last year," he said.

Referring to the Finance Minister often preferring to use Urdu language and quote famous poets, Sukhbir said, "FM uses phrases from Persian language while speaking and it seems there is a communication gap between him and his officers."

"Manpreet is mostly fond of Pakistani poets and often quotes them during his speeches, like he did during his budget speech recently...Problem is that Manpreet knows little about financial matters and more about poetry," he said, taking a dig at his estranged cousin, who was once in the Akali Dal and even floated his own outfit for a brief period after separating from the party before joining the Congress.