Budget 2020 does not address unemployment, slowing growth

New Delhi: While most leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party termed Budget 2020 as "visionary" and "futuristic", Opposition leaders panned it as lacking any concrete ideas to address problems such as rising unemployment and plummeting growth rate.

Soon after Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman finished the Budget speech, one of the longest in recent history, the BJP claimed that it addressed development for all sections of society, on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas slogan.

However, the Opposition leaders had concrete criticisms to offer.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said: "Our youth want jobs. Instead they got the longest Budget speech in Parliamentary history that said absolutely nothing of consequence. PM & FM both looked like they have absolutely no clue what to do next." He said there was no central idea to rid India of unemployment or improve the poor state of the economy.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh added that the Budget was "too long to absorb".

Senior Congress leader and former Finance minister P Chidambaram briefed the media after the Budget. He maintained: "There were multiple themes, segments and programmes, leaving the listener dazed and confused. It was a laundry list of old (that is current) programmes… The government has given up on reviving the economy or accelerating the growth rate or promoting private investment or increasing efficiency or creating jobs or winning a greater share of world trade."

"The Indian economy is demand-constrained and investment-starved. The FM has not acknowledged these two challenges, and that is a pity," he said, adding that the government was "in complete denial that the economy faces a grave macro-economic challenge and the growth rate has declined in six successive quarters."

"There is nothing in the Budget that leads us to believe that growth will revive in 2020-21. The claim of 6-6.5 per cent growth next year is astonishing and even irresponsible," he said.

As an advocate of market economy, he lashed out at the government for adhering to protectionist policies. However, he also criticised it for reducing food, fertiliser and petroleum subsidies.

"It appears that the people will not get any relief on the price front. Please remember that CPI inflation is over 7 per cent and food inflation is over 10 per cent," he said, adding there is no assurance that the Finance minister will meet the targets set for 2020-21.

He also said that the government rejected every reform idea contained in the Economic Survey. "Did the FM read the Economic Survey? Was the chief economic adviser privy to the contents of the Budget speech? I think the answer to both questions is in the negative."