Budget 2019: Chidambaram Says Budget 'Status-Quoist', Does Not Seek Radical Reforms For Faster Growth

Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said Monday the Union Budget for 2019-20 is "status-quoist" as it seeks to bring about only incremental reforms and not radical reforms required by the country to grow faster. Delivering a lecture on the "Union Budget - Will it deliver what it promises", he said there is nothing in the budget to take care of the 20 per cent poorest of the poor.

Chidambaram Says Budget 'Status-Quoist', Does Not Seek Radical Reforms For Faster Growth (PTI IMAGE)

New Delhi:  Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said Monday the Union Budget for 2019-20 is "status-quoist" as it seeks to bring about only incremental reforms and not radical reforms required by the country to grow faster. Delivering a lecture on the "Union Budget - Will it deliver what it promises", he said there is nothing in the budget to take care of the 20 per cent poorest of the poor. "This is a status-quoist budget of a government which talks to reform, but the idea of their reform is incremental reform, just bring changes on the margins. This is not the kind of structural reforms and radical reforms that this country needs. What we need are radical reforms and the best example of a radical reformer is Dr Manmohan Singh," he said. He said the budget does not have any structural reforms, and if there are no structural reforms, it appears that they want to carry on with the existing policies and reforms and yet achieve that kind of growth that this government envisages. Chidambaram said Singh brought radical reforms, "when we tore up the red book, when we abolished licensing overnight and when we got rid of foreign exchange control and that despicable era. Those were radical reforms. I can't see any radical reforms in this budget. Thus, our country, our economy will remain status quo for one more year," he said. "Except the corporate tax, every other number in this budget is suspect... Every number is not credible," he alleged, asking where the government proposes to bring in the revenues from. The former finance minister also said that the amount of Rs 70,000 crore is "totally insufficient" for recapitalization of banks. On the tall promise of making India a USD five-trillion economy by 2024, he said, "We will become a five-trillion-dollar economy by 2024 and they would achieve this promise made. But I can also make happen my promise of turning India into a 10-trillion-dollar economy in the next five years of 2024." He said a close study of the budget indicates that in terms of major investment and growth promoting activities, there is only 300 km metro line addition, 10,000 km FAME and accelerated water transport movement of cargo along the Ganga river. Noting that the budget proposals have nothing to boost investment and when growth is not coming through dramatically higher investment, it can only come from higher efficiency. "Given that, this level of investment is not going to give a dramatic rise in the growth rate," he noted. The senior Congress leader said, "We are selling false narratives that the inflation and consumer price index are low, but only to some extent and for some people only".