'Budget has long-term goal of Viksit Bharat': BJP rejects Cong's 'discrimination' charge

New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI) The BJP on Wednesday dismissed the Opposition's "discrimination" charge against the Union Budget and said barring a few "sops" for NDA allies, the policy priorities of the budget suggest it has a long-term goal of achieving a 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047.

Participating in the debate on the budget for 2024-25 in the Lok Sabha, BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab said the budget will empower the "neo-middle class" and asserted that the general election results have not “ruffled” the government.

“It seems the question in most of our minds has been that if the new Indian government will work as a Modi 3.0 or an NDA 2.0... I am of the opinion that barring a few sops for allies, its policy priorities suggest no change in the government’s approach, and the approach that was there in the interim budget has been magnified in the present one,” Mahtab said.

“We have a long-term goal to achieve and we have to reach 2047 as a ‘Viksit Bharat’... Many opposition members have already spoken as if the government of the party in power is totally ruffled because of the (election) results. The government is totally unruffled and is continuing its long-term approach,” he said.

Participating in the discussion, BJP MP from Tripura Biplab Deb said the NDA will be in government till 2047 and will take India to newer heights, while making the country number one economy in the world.

He said the interests of all states and all sections have been taken care of. An additional Rs 4.82 lakh crore share has been allocated for the states, he added.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guarantee is still there, it is there in the budget also," Deb said.

The Congress and other constituents of the INDIA bloc has accused the government of presenting a “discriminatory” budget towards opposition-ruled states after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a host of budgetary announcements for Andhra Pradesh and Bihar on Tuesday.

The JD (U) and the TDP, which rule Bihar and Andhra Pradesh respectively, are key constituents of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

Mahtab said the budget is for empowerment of the newly emerged "neo-middle class".

“The budget is sans poetry, but filled with political pragmatism. It is a budget which will take the country's villages, poor and farmers on a path to prosperity,” he said.

“The budget exercise is a complicated intertwining of political economy, compulsion with multiple policy tradeoffs, required to achieve often conflicting economic objectives while constrained by limited revenue. Despite these difficulties, the hallmark of the budget of past few years has been stability and predictability in approaches and outcome,” Mahtab said.

He said fiscal deficit has been reduced from 9.2 per cent of GDP in 2021, to a budgeted 5.1 per cent for 2024-25, and the estimated fiscal deficit will be 4.9 per cent of GDP.

“This demonstrates that the Indian economy has recovered strongly from the pandemic, but sustaining growth to attain ‘Viksit Bharat’ goal requires sustained intervention and dealing with several emerging economic and policy challenges,” he said.

Mahtab said India has achieved high growth post pandemic without compromising on financial stability, and this year’s budget is different from previous 10 budgets.

“When the interim budget was presented in February, I had said the government is full of self-confidence to form the next government, thereby looking at the long term picture,” he said.

Mahtab also dismissed Opposition’s criticism that Odisha was overlooked in the budget, and pointed out that the focus on eastern India included Odisha, along with Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

He said that eastern India, despite being resource rich, was “systematically pauperised” over the last 50-60 years, “until there was intervention of the Union government led by Modi ji”.

“Today we find policy intervention and greater focus is on the eastern states. The prime minister has said repeatedly that the country cannot become fully developed if one region is left underdeveloped,” he said.

He also said that there is a need to strike a balance between importing goods from China and foreign direct investment (FDI) from China.

“Data shows foreign investment from China has not been robust, although Chinese goods have been persistent,” he said, adding that India should look at getting investment, instead of just imports from China.

During the debate, Deb exuded confidence that in the next three years, India will become the third largest economy in the world.

"Congress' (Kumari) Selja ji called it a 'Kursi Bachao budget'...it means the Congress does not need Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. This budget is for everyone... Every section has been taken care of by Sitharaman," Deb said.

He also hailed the Modi government's development works in the northeast, saying there were only nine airports during the Congress rule but under the Modi government there are 16. PTI AO AO KVK KVK