The Lok Sabha has taken up discussion on the Union Budget-2019-2020. Initiating the discussion, Shashi Tharoor of Congress termed the Budget as rhetoric and full of empty promises. He accused the government of not fulfilling its promise of generating two crore jobs annually, but, in fact, joblessness in the country is high.
He said, under the crop insurance scheme, actually the Insurance companies are charging more from the farmers as premium and the timely compensation was not paid to the affected farmers.
Mr Tharoor also alleged that Kerala has been neglected in the Budget and there is no allocation for the rehabilitation of the flood-hit state.
He said, no allocation has been made for coastal management.
Participating in the debate, Jayant Sinha of BJP said, when the NDA Government came to power in 2014, the economic condition of the country was not good and it put the economy on the track.
He claimed, the government will archive the target of making India a five trillion dollar economy. Mr Sinha said that the government has increased the GDP from 111 lakh crore rupees in 2014 to 188 lakh crore rupees.
Mr Sinha said, by containing fiscal deficit, the government has reduced the borrowings and boost the savings.
TR Baalu of DMK said that increase in the price of fuel will lead to a cascading effect and burden the common man.
Kalyan Banerjee of Trinamool Congress said, the budget has no vision and it speaks of nothing but corporate. He questioned why the fuel prices are being hiked despite the rate of crude oil has decreased in the global market.
Biju Janata Dal MP Bhartruhari Mahtab stressed on the need to implement a new public investment programme. Sukhbir Singh Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal appreciated the government for implementing Ayushman Bharat scheme to provide five lakh rupees health cover annually to the poor family.
Danish Ali of Bahujan Samaj Party alleged that the budget has not taken care of the poor, farmers, middle class and it is a pro-corporate budget.
Jagdambika Pal, Ramesh Bidhuri and Raksha Khadse of BJP, Shrirang Appa Barne of Shiv Sena and members of other parties participated in the discussion. The debate on the budget remained inconclusive.