Mumbai: Former Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan has said that the annual budget presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has become irrelevant due to the crisis in the Indian economy because of coronavirus pandemic lockdown and therefore he has demanded that the FM should present a supplementary budget in June. New revenue streams, taxation and borrowing plans and revised expenditure priorities, cuts in development outlay must be approved by the Lok Sabha.
Chavan in his tweet said, "With the crisis in Indian economy, the budget of 1st Feb has become irrelevant. FM must present a supplementary budget in June. New revenue streams, taxation and borrowing plans and revised expenditure priorities, cuts in development outlays, must be approved by the Loksabha.’’
Chavan last week had attacked the Centre over Rs 20 lakh crore economic package announced to tide over the slowdown because of coronavirus outbreak. He had termed it ‘’jumla’’ and claimed that the Centre would be spending just 1 per cent of GDP and not 10 per cent as the NDA government has stated.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is thumping his chest about the Atmanirbhar campaign and Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package. In fact, only Rs 2 lakh crore is going to be used to increase spending capacity, which will create very less demand in the market. The rest Rs 18 lakh crore is nothing but various schemes of borrowing," he had said. He reiterated that the government should have announced the Rs 21 lakh crore package which is 10% of the GDP.
"Ten world renowned financial institutions have said actual spending in Modi's stimulus package would be around 0.7 per cent to 1.5 per cent. It exposes the hollowness of the stimulus package," Chavan said.
