Former Union Finance Minister and BJP leader, Yashwant Sinha, on Tuesday said the Budget 2015 should have paid more focus on bringing back fiscal discipline.
Addressing a seminar organised by the MCC Chamber of Commerce & Industry here, he said, it was “worrisome” that revenue deficit will continue to be around 3 per cent.
“The Budget should rather plan to eliminate the revenue deficit completely,” the former Union Minister, said.
Flagging off concerns, Sinha maintained that of the total budgetary provisions nearly a third is towards borrowing and servicing of debts. “Despite people calling me a fiscal fundamentalist, I believe that a government should live within its means,” Sinha said.
The proposed reductions to corporate tax do create the impression of the Government favouring them. The roadmap on how corporate tax would be lowered is however not mentioned.
No SecrecyHe even added that there should have a change in individual tax slabs with increase in standard deduction and the middle class should not be getting a feeling that they are being left out.
According to the former finance minister, the Union Budget document should not be treated as something secret any longer. “We are at a matured stage of democracy and in my opinion there are no secrets in the budget documents,” Sinha said adding that once the DTC and GST were introduced, the entire Budget Speech would become irrelevant.
Sinha mooted for a practice where the Finance Minister should make some proposals in the Budget which should then be discussed in Parliament and then finalised at a later session.
Comprehensive BudgetAccording to him, on the whole, the Budget had “good growth impulses” and was a “comprehensive one”. Focus on infrastructure development would create not just a scenario for increased investments; but also generate employment.
“The centre-piece of this Budget is the (increased) expenditure on infrastructure. If leveraged properly then investment demand should go up,” he added.