New Delhi, July 30 (UNI) Countering the Opposition criticism of Union Budget 2024-25, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that no state is being denied funds and the Indian economy has been consistently growing at the fastest-pace among its peers.
Replying to the discussion on Budget in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman hit out at the principal opposition Congress and said that it was only shedding crocodile tears for the farmers.
She said that allocation for none of the social sectors has been reduced in the Budget as alleged by some of the Opposition members and it had in fact gone up substantially over the years.
The Minister highlighted the key themes of the Union Budget presented in Parliament on July 23 and said that it had outlined measures to counter various challenges facing the economy.
“Budget 2024-25 seeks to ensure balance among several objectives because growth is important and through higher growth we believe that inequality can be addressed. The Budget therefore focuses on growth, employment, welfare spending, capital investments and fiscal consolidation. These are the factors which we have tried balancing in the Budget,” Sitharaman said.
She also stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return to office for the third term had reaffirmed people’s faith in him and the commitment with which he is leading the country.
The Minister highlighted that the government had maintained higher capital expenditure for creating quality assets in the country laying the foundation for a developed nation.
“Expenditure of the government has grown exponentially. It is today Rs 48.21 lakh crores. It is projected to grow by about 7.3% over 2023-24 and 8.5% over pre-actuals of 2023-24 …Within the total expenditure, one feature which has marked India’s growth story post-Covid it is the capital expenditure, the public money with which we are building assets,” she said.
Sitharaman vehemently countered the allegations of some of the Opposition members that the Budget for the current fiscal had ignored the developmental requirements of Opposition-ruled states as it did not even mention their names.
“If a state is not named in a Budget speech it doesn’t mean that no money goes to them,” she hit back.
“It pains me to know that they (Opposition members) could say that if you are not mentioned in the Budget speech your state gets nothing at all,” she further said.
The Minister pointed out that the Budget speech for 2004-05 didn’t take the names of 17 states.
“I would like to ask UPA government members at that time. Didn’t money go to those states? In the 2008-09 Budget, 13 states were not named (in Budget). In 2009-10, 26 states were not named. We are being blamed that only two states were named (in Budget 2024-25) and other states are not getting anything. Budget 2009-10 had (names of) only two states — Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and no other states. What does that mean then?” she asked.
The Minister listed out many projects proposed in the Union Budget for various states especially those ruled by the Congress and its allies.
During her reply, she highlighted the cash transfers being done for farmers under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.
Sitharaman also stated that a committee has been constituted some time ago to look at how the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) can work better so that farmers can get more benefits.
“Today, the Congress and INDI alliance partners are all doing good lot of politics on farmers,” she said.
Countering the Congress party over their demand for legal MSP guarantee for various crops, the Minister said that the UPA government had rejected the recommendation of the National Commission on Farmers (headed by agriculture economist MS Swaminathan) over MSP.
“The National Commission on Farmers (headed by agriculture economist MS Swaminathan) had recommended in 2006 Minimum Support Price (MSP) should be at 50% more than the weighted average cost of production. This was not accepted by the UPA government,” she said.
Over the issue of inflation, the Minister said that the government had kept inflation in check unlike the UPA governments when it remained in double-digits.
Highlighting the fiscal prudence shown by the government, Nirmala said that the fiscal deficit trajectory projected earlier has been maintained.
“I had promised in this House that the government would endeavour to attain fiscal deficit to GDP level below 4.5% by the year 2025-26 from an unprecedented high of 9.2% in 2020-21. We have kept completely to the trajectory projected. We have not deviated from it,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha today approved the Budget for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) for 2024-25.
