If you promise freebies, make budgetary provision for it: FM Nirmala Sitharaman to political parties

New Delhi, August 26

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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has sought a rigorous debate on freebies and said that political parties making promises before elections must make budgetary provisions to take care of the expenditure and avoid pushing the burden on other entities.

She said power discoms and generating firms have borne the brunt of such freebies as these companies get paid in part or not at all in some other cases, even as they do not play any role in the announcements.

“You end up shifting the burden to the discom which has not gone to the election. The discom has not asked for votes. Why should they be burdened? Do they have the power to stop continuing the supply? And similarly the gencos,” she said.

“The debate is not about what constitutes a freebie, but if you have given a promise, provision for it,” she added, while contributing to an ongoing debate involving the Supreme Court, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and senior BJP politicians including PM Modi and Sitharaman. Earlier she had accused Kejriwal of giving a “perverse twist to the debate” when he had questioned the state of Central finances.

The Minister said that the country’s economy is expected to grow at 7.4 percent in this fiscal. This is the same as the projections by RBI and ADB estimates while it is 0.2 per cent lower than IMF’s projections.

Addressing a gathering in Mumbai on Friday, the Union Finance Minister said that the government’s estimation is based on developments. She referred to IMF and World Bank’s projections that India’s growth will be the fastest for the next two fiscal years.