The Hindu Business Line : Budget a `wasted opportunity', says Yashwant Sinha

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Kolkata March 2 Criticising the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, for not showing the courage to take bold initiatives in the 2007-08 Union Budget to tame inflation for benefit of the `aam aadmi', especially through more indirect tax cuts, the former Union Finance Minister and BJP Rajya Sabha Member, Mr Yashwant Sinha, said here today that "this is not just an opportunity missed, as stated by Mr Narayana Moorthy, but an opportunity wasted".

No attempt has been made to check the inflationary expectations in the economy, never mind even if hefty revenues have to be sacrificed, and the Finance Minister has goofed up, he pointed out.

All it needed, especially at a time when economic indicators like savings and investment rates and forex reserves were looking up, was a little squeeze on government expenditure.

Pointing out that such lacklustre budgets will make people lose all interest in Union Budgets in future, the BJP leader said the only consolation was that neither good nor bad will result from this exercise, despite the `whitewashing' carried out in the statistics doled out in fine print only to score political brownie points, he added.

Farm outlay

On the proposed farm outlays, he said no clear steps have been announced to safeguard against rural distress on account of indebtedness, the principal cause of farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh or Gujarat.

Seeking firm steps to tackle the steep rise in prices of essential commodities, Mr Sinha said "more than the supply-side constraints, to my mind, it seems like mental constraints on the part of the UPA government".

He said no single parliamentary session during the UPA regime so far has ended without discussions on price increases.

Chance missed

Speaking at an interactive session organised by the Swadeshi Research Institute on Budget, Mr Sinha said for all practical purposes, this may have been the last opportunity for the UPA government to do something big for the people of this country, unveil a big vision through the Budget, as the economy was booming. Having missed the chance this time, an election-year Budget in 2008-09 may not yield the opportunity to the UPA government to offer all the reliefs to the common man in one go, he added.

On the proposed Rs 10,000 hike in income-tax exemption limit, he said as per calculations, the monthly gain for an individual may be around Rs 60 or Rs 70.

Too much tinkering has been done based on whims and fancies without applying the mind in the Budget, he pointed out.