Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said the Opposition is presenting the true picture of the economy — loss of jobs and incomes, increasing unemployment, mounting indebtedness of families and rising inequality. He was responding to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's charge that the Opposition is spreading a false narrative on the economy.

In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said in 2018-19, banks wrote off about ₹2.38 lakh crore of non-performing assets (NPA), which are mostly loans defaulted by corporates. "In 2019-20, the government gave tax concessions to corporates amounting to about ₹ 1.45lakh crore. Why give the corporate sector more when there are other more deserving sections of the people who have suffered in the last 36 months?," he asked.

He said the Finance Minister through the Budget is spreading the false narrative that all is well with the economy. "Who has suffered most? Not the corporates, but MSMEs, the self-employed, those who have lost their jobs, those who are seeking jobs, tenant farmers, landless labour, daily wage earners and migrant workers. What has the Budget offered to these sections?," he said.

Published on February 13, 2021