‘Crocodile tears’: FM Nirmala Sitharaman responds to budget discussion in LS | Top points

Jul 30, 2024 07:30 PM IST

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday responded to the discussion and questions by Opposition members on the Union Budget. Sitharaman spoke on several budget issues raised by members of the Lok Sabha since July 23.

Along with answering questions about the budget, Nirmala Sitharaman also introduced The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No. 3) Bill, 2024 in the Parliament. She is set to respond to questions about the Finance Bill 2024 on August 7.

Here are the top points:

• In response to criticism from Opposition members who said the Budget only allocated funds to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh while ignoring other states, Sitharaman called out Opposition leaders for making misleading claims that if a state is not mentioned in the Budget speech, it will not receive any funds. She stressed that no state is being denied funds.
• She pointed out that previous Budgets from the UPA government also did not mention every state by name in their Budget speeches. “I have been picking up on Budget speeches since 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008 and so on. The Budget of 2004-2005 did not take the name of 17 states. I would like to ask the members of the UPA government at that time – did money not go to those 17 states? Did they stop it?” she said.
• Sitharaman also said that India is growing quickly and has recovered well from the pandemic because of strong investments. She mentioned that the government is working to reduce the fiscal deficit. They aim to lower it to under 4.5 per cent by 2025-26, down from the 4.9 per cent target for this year. The deficit was 5.6 per cent in 2023-24.
• “Today, they (opposition) are talking about reservation and SCs and STs. In English, there’s a saying – ‘Charity begins from home’ meaning what you are asking from others, you should do it first. I would like to ask how many SCs, STs and OBCs are there in the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. There are nine people and none of them belong to SC, ST and OBC community,” said Sitharaman on the halwa issue raised by the Opposition.
• Addressing concerns around unemployment, she said, “SBI research report which was released in July 2024 said India created 12.5 crore jobs between 2014 and 2023 compared to only 2.9 crore during the 10 years of the UPA Govt…The unemployment rate has declined from 6% in 2017-18 to a low of 3.2% in 2022-23. Youth unemployment for the age group 15-29 years has declined sharply from 17.8% in 2017-18 to 10% in 2022-23.”
• Speaking on the questions surrounding MSP and farmers, she said, “The National Commission on Farmers had recommended in 2006 the minimum Support Price should be at 50% more than the weighted average cost of production. This was not accepted by the UPA government. The cabinet note, which was drafted in July 2007, said MSP is recommended by the CACP on objective criteria considering the variety of factors involved. Therefore, setting an increase of at least 50% on the cost may distort the market. In some cases, there may be a mechanical linkage between MSP and the cost of production per producer. After saying this, the UPA govt rejected the MS Swaminathan report in 2007…Congress Party can go on shedding crocodile tears about farmers, but no implementation was done in the last 10 years…”
• Furthermore, Sitharaman also spoke on fiscal deficit issues raised in the Parliament. She said, “We are complying with fiscal deficit trajectory; will bring it down to below 4.5 per cent by 2025-26.”
• Sitharaman pointed out that this year’s budget has more money allocated for social programs than last year and also more than in 2013-14. “The expenditure of the government has grown exponentially to ₹48.21 lakh crore; it is projected to grow by 7.3 per cent over 2023-24 and 8.5 per cent over pre-actuals of 2023-24,” she said.
• “The Budget allocation for the Department of Agriculture and farmers’ welfare was only ₹21,934 crore in 2013-2014. However, in 2024-2025, it has increased to ₹1.23 lakh crore. There’s a five times increase. More than ₹3.2 lakh crore have been disbursed to over 11 crore farmers under PM Kisan since its launch,” she said.
• The finance minister also said that the budget mainly focuses on including all social groups and regions. She noted that spending has greatly increased to ₹48.23 lakh crore.
• She also spoke on concerns about budget allocation being lesser than in past years. The Finance Minister also mentioned that from the ₹48.21 lakh crore budget this year, ₹11.11 lakh crore is set aside for capital spending. She added that even for health, the budget increased from ₹72,000 crore to ₹1.46 lakh crore. “So nowhere has the budget given a lesser allocation than the previous year.”