Opposition lashes out at ‘spendthrift’ Gujarat government

The opposition members lashed out at Gujarat government for spending on unnecessary things and exploiting the common man by collecting heavy taxes.

The arguments were made by opposition members on Friday during the last day of debate on budgetary demands. Finance minister and deputy CM Nitin Patel had put up the demands of his department to a vote.

Opposition member CJ Chavda criticised the government’s policy of borrowing and lending money. The Gandhinagar MLA said, “Your government gets loans at interest rate of 7% from World Bank and other financial institutions and that is why public debt has been increasing year by year. It is good if the borrowed money is spent on the welfare of poor people and farmers, but you gave soft loans to Tata for Nano car plant and that too is repayable after 25 years. Which means you have been taking loans at high rate and lending money for free.” Chavda also said farmers in Gujarat have a Rs 32,000 crore debt.

Opposition whip Amit Chavda said 33% taxes are levied on unprocessed tobacco leaves and that is why farmers could not sell their produce. The Anklav MLA also said, “The government collected almost Rs 30,000 crore as taxes on fuels. When UPA was in power, they kept rates of fuels under control.”

Deputy Opposition leader Shailesh Parmar tried to squeeze the Deputy CM with questions on per capita annual income in Gujarat and per capita public debt. The deputy CM replied that per capita income in Gujarat was Rs 1.56 lakh a year while public debt was Rs 1.99 crore. He didn’t speak about debt.