Union budget 'totally wasted opportunity': Congress

The Congress on Tuesday said the Union budget was a "totally wasted opportunity" and accused the government of having "wrong" priorities with lesser outlays for various sectors including defence, agriculture and food.

"The general consensus was that it was a totally wasted opportunity. It beat the drums to a march that was not there," senior Congress spokesperson and former finance minister P Chidambaram said.

He said the country expected that at the end of the budget session there would be greater clarity about the state of the economy, but it is not so.

"Unfortunately, there is no such clarity. At the end of the session, we are no wiser than we were at the beginning of the session. The best that can be said about Budget was that no more harm was done to the economy," he said.

Chidambaram also criticised the Finance Bill for having non-money matters in "flagrant violation of accepted norms and conventions" and the sole purpose of doing so was to avoid scrutiny in Rajya Sabha. "It was an assault on the Constitution of India. We hope that courts will pronounce on the legality of such devices," he told reporters.