‘It is a joke’: Delhi govt tears into Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget

The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has protested against the Centre’s budgetary allocation for the national capital since it first came into power. Allocation, it says, has remained stagnated, despite the city’s contribution to tax going up.

“This is the last budget of the second term of the Modi Government. Since 2014, new phrases have been heard in the budget like ‘acche din’… Promises of providing 60 lakh jobs, bullet train, providing Rs 15 lakh to the people and doubling the income of the farmers were announced but nothing has been fulfilled yet. What happened to all those announcements? Today, they have again presented a budget which has nothing but a jumla. This jumla budget is going to put the country in more debt and will drown the entire nation,” Sisodia said. “Ask any economist or a person who has knowledge of economic growth, whenever the government takes debt in a stupid way, without thinking, inflation takes place.”

The Deputy CM, who also holds the portfolio of finance minister in the Delhi government, slammed the BJP-led Centre for not allocating any budget to the MCD. “They give budgets to all the other state corporations except Delhi. They did not give any funds when the BJP was in the MCD, and funds were not allocated when the AAP came to power,” he said, adding: “Centre gives only Rs 611 per person to Delhi from its share of taxes. However it gives Rs 64,524 crore to Maharashtra (Rs 4,963 per person), Rs 80,183 crore to MP (Rs 9,216 per person) and Rs 37,252 crore to Karnataka (Rs 5,247 per person).”

“Madam (Nirmala Sitharaman), in the press conference, was talking about inclusive growth. They call this a ‘budget of inclusive growth’. How come you talk about inclusive growth without spending on education and health sectors? It is a joke. The health budget came down from 2.2% to 1.98% and education decreased from 2.65% to 2.5%. Unemployment rate in the country is 8.3%,” said Sisodia.

Sisodia said that in the last budget, the Centre promised to provide 60 lakh jobs. “How many jobs did you provide? Ten per cent of youngsters in every city are unemployed… They are calling it an infrastructure budget and that airports and roads will come up… There is no vision to end unemployment in this budget. Unemployment will not end with the construction of a few airports and roads. India needs a consumption economy,” he said.

He said the Budget will benefit only some “private investors” and the rich. On income tax exemption, Sisodia said, “The central government is boasting about the tax rebates offered in this budget. It is to be noted that only 4% of people pay taxes in India, and of this 4%, only 10% of people use the scheme they are boasting about. This means that only 0.4% of people will get a rebate of Rs 50,000. How is this a game-changer?”

“There is an exemption in the surcharge for 21 super-rich persons of the country but there is nothing for the 70 crore population,” said Sisodia. “People were expecting some relief in petrol price, tax and GST amid inflation but there is no scheme… Overall, this is a jumla budget to benefit some super-rich persons and put the country in more debt. There is no roadmap to end this debt. The future generation will suffer.” Sisodia said the central government has not given any budget to Delhi for the G20 summit, which is scheduled in September.