General Budget lacks confidence: Chidambaram
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday night said the General Budget 2002-2003 lacked confidence, was clueless on how to stimulate an economic recovery and sombre.
"It reflects the mood of the central government, sombre, lacking in confidence and without a clue on how to stimulate an economic recovery. It should have laid out a road map for promoting investment, public and private, foreign and domestic. From this point of view, the Budget has let us down very badly," he said in a statement.
However, he said the Budget was not without its good points as there was sharper focus on agriculture. "The reform of indirect taxes continues. There are reasonably attractive packages for the textile, steel and tea industries," he said.
Chidambaram said even though Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has attempted additional resource mobilisation on a very large scale, almost Rs 105 billion, there is no matching effort on the expenditure side.
PTI
YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
The Rediff Budget Special
The Rail Budget 2002-03
The Economic Survey 2001-02
More Budget Stories
Money