Opposition Congress called the interim Budget presented by Nirmala Sitharaman today in Parliament a farewell budget and said it has turned out to be an ‘empty envelope’.
“Like the “General Budget” of the Modi government, interim Budget2024 also turned out to be an “empty envelope”!,” wrote senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on X.
After listing various issues including unemployment, decreasing women’s participation in workforce, ever-increasing inflation and financial crisis in the country, Mr Surjewala said the “Modi government, which waives off lakhs of crores of rupees to its capitalist friends and continuously gives exemption in “Corporate Tax”, does nothing except “picking the pockets” of the common people of the country and making “false statements”!.”
मोदी सरकार के “आम बजट” की तरह, #InterimBudget2024 भी “खाली लिफ़ाफा” ही निकला !
अपने इस “विदाई बजट” में भी मोदी सरकार ने देश के किसानों, नौजवानों, महिलाओं और मिडिल क्लास सहित किसी को कुछ भी नहीं दिया !
➡️ बेरोजगारी के हाहाकार में देश के आधे युवा तो रोजगार की उम्मीद भी छोड़ चुके…
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) February 1, 2024
Another Congress MP, Adhir Ranjan Choudhary said that the Budget is nothing but a method to “woo people in this year’s Lok Sabha elections”.
Speaking to ANI, another Congress MP, Karti Chidambaram said the Interim Budget was a “mere administrative exercise to ensure that the government of India has the requisite funds to carry on its normal business until the new parliament is constituted and a new government is formed. And that”s what they have done, except for making their obligatory self-congratulatory, self-praise phrases, nothing else is there and nothing should have been there, and rightly so. Nothing is there.”
#WATCH | On Interim Budget 2024-25, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram says, “Mere administrative exercise to ensure that the government of India has the requisite funds to carry on its normal business until the new parliament is constituted and a new government is formed. And that”s… pic.twitter.com/ms5Tsx3gqD
— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2024
Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram said that the Budget speech was “short and disappointing”. He said it was a typical one that usually comes ahead of the elections, where only one part of the narrative was said. Talking about the capital expenditure budget for the next year, as said by the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, he asked “What is this – a budget for a large nation based on analysis or some numerology prayer for elections?”.
Capital expenditure budget for next year is ₹11,11,111 cr says FM @nsitharaman
What is this – a budget for a large nation based on analysis or some numerology prayer for elections?
— Praveen Chakravarty (@pravchak) February 1, 2024
Manish Tiwari, another Congress MP stated that the there is a budget deficit of Rs 18 crores, which he called “worrying”. He said the deficit means that the government is borrowing for its expenditure.
On interim Budget 2024, Congress MP Manish Tewari says, “It is a “vote-on-account” which has only one purpose to keep the government solvent for the first quarter of the current fiscal year. What”s worrying is that
there is a budget deficit of Rs 18 lakh crores. This means that… pic.twitter.com/X9Q6JRcS4w— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2024