Oppn slams budget, calls it disappointing

Chandigarh, March 17

Opposition parties panned the BJP-government’s maiden budget on Tuesday, terming it variously as lackluster and directionless and said it failed to fulfill poll promises.

Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda called the budget "very disappointing and lackluster", and accused the government of fulfill its election promises.

"It was the first budget of the BJP-led state government.

People had voted for the BJP with a lot of expectations but this budget has dashed all their hopes," Hooda said.

Taking a jibe at the budget, Hooda said: “There is a saying in our villages that songs which are sung at the time of marriages are not always true. We expected some relief for farmers or poor people in the budget. But it is silent on these issues."

The former CM also slammed the budget for failing to introduce new schemes and criticised the government on the increasing debt in the current fiscal.

"The previous government used to criticise us for ballooning debt. When we left the state government, the debt was Rs 71,000 crore. Under the BJP regime, the debt in current fiscal had gone up to Rs 96,000 crore for next fiscal," he said.

INLD, the main opposition party in the state assembly likewise called the budget "disappointing and directionless".

State INLD president Ashok Arora said: "No relief has been given to any section. The budget is silent on how the BJP will fulfill tall promises it made to the people before the polls"

The Opposition parties also accused the state government of introducing new taxes and burdening the public.

Hooda also accused the BJP-government of fabricating charges in the recently released white paper on the state’s financial health. “The BJP government used to say that the previous Congress government had left the coffers empty. I want to ask them if we had left the state treasury empty, then how the BJP government came out with the budget. It proves that the white paper they released was white lie," he said.

Senior Congress leader and party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala accused the state government of slashing the plan outlay from Rs 32,731 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 25,743 crore for 2015-16.

“In our budget for 2014-15 last year, we had proposed an Annual Plan of Rs 32,731.29 crore which as per today's budget has been reduced to Rs 22,109.57 crore in Revised Estimates presented by the BJP government” he said.

"If we leave out central schemes support, then actual plan outlay will be Rs 20,637 crore," he said adding that the budget was "anti-people."

Surjewala also said that the borrowing would go up to 21.94 per cent in 2015-16 from 19 per cent in current fiscal and accused the government of having "hidden" taxes in the budget.

"The tax revenue was projected at Rs 33,402 crore in current fiscal which is projected to go up to Rs 38,929 crore which means Rs 5,527 crore as difference will be imposed on people".

Haryana will not benefit from the increase in devolution of central taxes, Surjewala said. — PTI