Interim Budget passes Lok Sabha muster

The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the government's Interim Budget for the financial year 2019-20 after a day-long discussion.

Finance minister Piyush Goyal had presented the BJP-led government's last Budget on February 1. Though it was an Interim Budget, the finance minister made many announcements ranging from rebate for the middle class to income support for farmers and pension scheme for informal sector workers. By convention, the outgoing governments don't make mega announcements, particularly on the income tax front.

General elections are due in April-May. The main Budget for 2019-20 will be presented by a new government.

On Monday, Goyal introduced the Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill amid a din in the House by a voice vote. The Bills were passed by voice vote after the finance minister's reply.

While replying to a debate on the Interim Budget, Goyal said the government had worked for all sections of the society in the past four-and-a-half-years and had taken care of them in this Budget. He said the middle-class individuals earning up to Rs 9 lakh per annum don't need to pay income tax if they avail all the deductions and rebate.

The FM had announced in the Interim Budget a full tax rebate for individual taxpayers with an annual income of up to Rs 5 lakh. For small and marginal farmers with landholding up to two hectare, an income support scheme worth Rs 75,000 crore was unveiled in the Budget. Under this, Rs 6,000 is to be given in three equal instalments in a year. Another big announcement was a pension scheme for the unorganised sector workers earning below Rs 15,000 per month. They can now get a pension of Rs 3,000 per month after attaining the age of 60 years.

"The poor, farmers and the middle-class are the government's priorities. Our government was the first to increase minimum support price (MSP) for farmers," Goyal said as his speech was interrupted by slogans from the opposition benches.

Referring to the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, Goyal said that those living in palaces will never understand the importance of Rs 2,000 every four months.

Congress MP Veerappa Moily said that PM-Kisan translates to Rs 3 per family per day, while Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mnarega) provided Rs 125 per day.

Congress and left parties walked out when the debate on the Budget was taken up by the lower House. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) MP M Thambidurai said the government should not have made populist announcements in the Interim Budget. He said the government had four years to announce these schemes but they did not do it. He also said that the unemployment is the highest in 45 years even as the gross domestic product (GDP) was good.

Goyal said that his government had presented an honest Budget and that there was no accounting jugglery under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "PM had said that there was no need to do any adjustment in the fiscal deficit numbers," Goyal said, adding that keeping the fiscal deficit within the target would have needed an adjustment of a mere Rs 5,000 crore. The fiscal deficit, which was 3.367% of the GDP, was rounded off at 3.4%.

"As a chartered accountant (CA) I would have cut Rs 5,000 crore from expenditure somewhere and the fiscal deficit figure would have become 3.3%. But the PM said that don't do chartered accountancy. The real figures should be presented before the country and that there is no need to do an adjustment of Rs 5,000 crore," Goyal said.

Elaborating on the achievements on macroeconomic front, Goyal said, "We brought down fiscal deficit from 4.5% (at the end of UPA regime) to 3.4%. Inflation was 12% during UPA. It was reduced to 2.19% by our government," he added.

Accusing the Congress of betraying the nation, Goyal said that Congress-led UPA committed a breach of trust with the people of India and that the people of India will never forgive it.