‘Wash your mouth with Dettol over corruption’: Finance Minister ticks off Congress
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, February 10
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said there had been no cuts in food and fertiliser subsidy nor have MNREGA funds been reduced in the proposed Union Budget for 2023-24, even as she ticked off the Congress over corruption.
“You should wash your mouth with Dettol for the corruption you have done,” a combative Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha while replying to the Budget debate.
The FM also took swipes at Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who read the last year’s Budget in the state Assembly today and said, “Anyone can make a mistake but I pray to God that no one has to go through this that they read last year’s Budget in the current year.”
Questioned by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhury over food subsidy cuts, Sitharaman said, “There has been no reduction in the food subsidy. The charge that we maintained fiscal discipline at the cost of food subsidy is wrong.”
When Adhir accused the FM of reducing monthly foodgrain allocations to the poor to Rs 5 kg under the PM Anna Yojana, Sitharaman said, “What about Congress-ruled states which also gave only 5 kg under the food security Act? Food subsidy averaged around 1 lakh-crore between 2015 and 2020 and is projected at Rs 1.97 lakh-crore in the proposed Budget. There are no cuts.”
Citing data from Congress rule times, the FM said MNREGA budget was much lower under the UPA than under the BJP which had been raising MNREGA budget at the revised estimate stage with actual expenditure often being more than even the RE stage. “Budget for MNREGA, a demand-driven programme, can be raised at the RE stage like it has been in the past,” said Sitharaman.
The FM also cited statistics to show that the fertiliser subsidy which averaged Rs 65000 crore to Rs 80000 crore between 2015-16 and 2019-20 was projected at Rs 2.25 lakh-crore in the Budget before Parliament.
Hitting back at Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi for questioning high fuel prices, the FM asked, “Why did Congress-ruled Himachal raise VAT on diesel by Rs 3 right after coming to power, even when the Prime Minister reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel twice to ease the burden on the poor? The states that contrastingly raised the burden on the poor are—Himachal and Punjab, Kerala. West Bengal did not cut excise duty. Tamil Nadu cut it marginally, while Andhra, Telangana, Kerala and Jharkhand did not reduce prices of fuel from the time the Centre announced excise duty cuts twice in November 2021 and July 2022 until now.”
She said the Congress’ “very active MP (read Gogoi) should listen to what Congress-ruled states had done”.
