Opposition MPs say budget will be for elections, claim government is hoodwinking people

NEW DELHI: Opposition MPs have attacked the government ahead of the budget presentation saying they have very little hope from the Finance Minister. Attacking the BJP-led Central government, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) MP Vaiko said on Wednesday that the interim budget presentation will be an exercise of "hoodwinking" the people of India.

He also alleged that the Union government has not provided enough funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction in the aftermath of the recent floods in Tamil Nadu.

"They will try to hoodwink the people of India." Vaiko said this when asked about his expectations for the interim budget. "For the Tamil Nadu flood havoc, the central government has not provided the needed funds," he added. Congress MP K Suresh said that his party was expecting an election oreinted budget.

"We are expecting this to be an election-oriented budget. BJP wants to win again and come back to power. That is why, there will be some gimmick in the budget. There will be eyewash schemes for common people...On one side they talk about common people and on the other side, they are increasing commercial gas cylinder's price and implementing anti-people policies" he said. CPI MP P Santosh Kumar said he had no expecations from the Government. "We will have to see if the govt will bring any pro-people policy.

This govt is not doing anything for the general public. I am not expecting anything positive from the government. Since this is the election year, the government might announce some soaps" he said. Meanwhile, keeping with tradition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman first called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan together with her collegaues Ministers of State Bhagwat Karad and Pankaj Chaudhary, ahead of the Budget presentation in Parliament on Thursday morning.

Sitharaman earlier arrived at the Finance Ministry ahead of her big speech in Parliament today. She was seen carrying a red-coloured 'bahi khata' which contains Budget document, in paperless form. Over the past three years, a new tradition has been set where the finance minister carries budget documents in electronic form in a bahi khata. At 11 am, Union Finance Minister Sitharaman will table the interim budget as the Lok Sabha polls are due to be held this year.

This will be her sixth Budget as the Finance Minister and last in the second term of the the Modi government. The interim budget will take care of the financial needs of the intervening period until a government is formed after the Lok Sabha polls after which a full budget will be presented by the new government.

With this Budget Presentation Sitharaman will equal the record set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who as finance minister, presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964. The Indian economy is projected to grow close to 7 per cent in the financial year 2024-25 which starts this April, said the Ministry of Finance in a review report.

India's economy grew 7.2 per cent in 2022-23 and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22. The Indian economy is expected to grow 7.3 per cent in the current financial year 2023-24, remaining the fastest-growing major economy.

The last full Budget of Modi government 2.0 had proposed to increase capital expenditure outlay by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore in 2023-24, which would be 3.3 per cent of the GDP. It was almost three times the outlay in 2019-20.