Budget 2020: Nothing in the Budget to get the economy out of the slump, says Congress MP Rajeev Gowda

Congress Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament  Rajeev Gowda said on Saturday that Union Budget 2020-21 is disconnected from India’s reality.

He told CNBC-TV18 at a time when consumption, investment, exports, and jobs are dried up, there is nothing in this Budget that is going to get the country and the economy out of the slump.

TMC Lok Sabha MP  Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said the Budget was a good storytelling session for 2.5 hours.

“It is very impractical and it is going to cause the already stressed economy of the country very dearly because it seems like an eyewash, all the points that have been mentioned. Even about the tax for the middle class, we are happy that the middle class will get some benefit, but I think the exemptions and the deductions put together is going to cost them dearly,” she said.

Congratulating the finance minister,  Akali Dal  Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral said Nirmala Sitharaman has shown fiscal discipline despite all the challenges.

“Had she not shown this discipline, we would have runaway inflation as we faced after 2008 when Pranab Mukherjee had presented the Budget and that led to very high interest rates which crippled the economy. So, I welcome her fiscal discipline and I think this will carry us through a very difficult year,” he said.

Lok Sabha MP of BJP and former minister Jayant Sinha said that this is a feel good Budget.

“We maintained fiscal discipline, at the same time it is a feel good Budget because through the wide-ranging consultations that the finance minister, the Prime Minister and other senior leaders had, we got very good high-quality input in terms of what needs to be addressed, to be able to really revive and get the economy moving again."

He said the Budget was a long-term one, the longest Budget in the history in fact, because it systematically and step-by-step addressed all the issues and concerns that came from all the various stakeholders.