Budget 2022: Govt should have stimulated demand side, put cash in hands of people, says Amit Mitra

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced Budget 2022, which has enthused the markets. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Amit Mitra, West Bengal CM's Principal Chief Adviser, gave his take and outlook on the road ahead.

Mitra said, "The budget has to face the immediate crisis which I would call a shock to the economy. Then it will have to have a medium term perspective. The long term is not predictable so economists never venture towards the long term. So what the budget should have done was created stimulation on the demand side, everybody will agree on that but not this government. The government should have put cash in the hands of people, that is what West Bengal did and the result was that we had a 1.2 percent positive rate of growth when India has negative 7.7 percent. So it is an example for the centre to learn from."