The opposition  targeted the government over demonetization, terming it as a "psychological shock" based on "spurious and dubious" economic logic but conceded that it was a smart political strategy for the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections. During a debate on General Budget in the Rajya Sabha, the opposition parties also alleged that the country's economy was driven by the US dollar and not the Rupee.

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The Congress also attacked the government for making Aadhaar mandatory for all government schemes, which it said was in violation of the Supreme Court orders. Congress member Jairam Ramesh said during the 10 years of UPA, the economy grew at 7.4 per cent on an average whereas it has slowed down during the NDA and investor sentiment is down. "Demonetization may well have been a smart political strategy (by the government) but I still maintain that demonetization is based on spurious and dubious economic logic," he said. "It is beyond doubt that demonetization was a psychological shock," the former minister added.

He said there was no country in the world barring Burma, North Korea and a collapsed Soviet Union that had adopted demonetization a strategy. Noting that a lot of debate has taken place on demonetization, Ramesh said the BJP will undoubtedly look at UP election results as a vindication of the note ban drama. He was clearly referring to the resounding victory of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh in the recently-held Assembly polls.

D Raja (CPI) said the Budget does not have adequate steps to contain inflation, create more jobs as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There is also no increase in direct taxes on the rich but assurance to reduce corporate tax, he added. "There is a burden of indirect tax on the poor people.

The government talks about reforms but there is no visible tangible action against defaulters by the rich, corporate houses," Raja said. He said the IMF had pointed to growing inequality in the country and lower spending on health and education.

"Since 1991 onwards, our economy has been highly dependent on foreign exchange inflows where it is dependent more on foreign exchange, on US dollars than Indian rupees. I can very well call that Indian economy is not a rupee economy.

It has become US dollar-dominated economy," he said. Raja said the current account and GDP of India are being determined more by inflow of American dollars and foreign investments.

"Our Current Account is always in a deficit, where the US dollar receivables by way of exports and services are less than what is payable to imports and services. We find that the US dollar is always premium. Currently, around six per cent of our economy is actually dependent on the US dollar," he said. Tapan Kumar Sen (CPI-M) said year after year, huge amount of direct tax is lying unrecovered and in every Budget the tax is raised but not realised.

"In the current year, this amount of direct taxes to be recovered is Rs 6.59 lakh crore," he said, asking, "Can a government, constrained by the lack of resources, afford that luxury to continue like this?"

Ridiculing the government for laying too much emphasis on GDP numbers, Jairam Ramesh cited the example of China where, instead of economic growth, three indicators -- train freight, bank credit and power consumption -- are used as basis for taking stock of the economy. The Congress leader said that on the basis of these three indicators, the condition of Indian economy is not good. He said the GDP growth has slowed down to the lowest level in last 14 years which has affected the investors' sentiments. Talking about the impact of note ban, he said the demand and investments had slowed down and it was mainly due to less consumption and meager investments on account of cash crunch.

He said the Assembly election results do not mean that the impact of demonetization is negated. Ramesh also raised doubts over the government's claim over note ban impact on the black money. He also said that the Centre has not done any favour by giving 42 per cent share of revenue to the states on the recommendation of the Fourteenth Finance Commission.

He said that despite higher share of taxes for states, they have not increased their expenditure on social sector schemes and other sectors like health and education. Talking about Aadhaar, he said the Unique Identification (UID) number is a means to identify people and not for giving bulk benefits like in the case of mid day meal. "Asking for Aadhaar for mid day meal is a mockery of the entire Aadhaar scheme which is meant for weeding out duplicate persons to plug leakages," the Congress leader said.

He also stressed the need for using Aadhaar as voluntary means for people to identify themselves for various facilitates and benefits rather than making it mandatory. Harivansh (JDU) said the government was "the prisoner" of its "own populist promises" made during the elections. Talking about globalisation, he said this is clear from the rise of Donald Trump in the US that globalisation has not benifitted all.

He said the budget does not seem to address the regional economic imbalance and disparities in incomes due to globalisation. He drew the government's attention to the need for creating employment as over one million youngsters enter the job market every year. The rate of unemployment is around five per cent and the number unemployed would soon touch 14 crore in the country, he said, adding that the Budget is silent on measures to address this issue. 

Ajay Sancheti (BJP) said demonetization has had positive impact on the economy as reflected in the recent assembly elections. Tapan Sen of CPI(M) said in the Budget, the government

had sacrificed indirect taxes to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore on the one hand and on the other hand, it was targeting to generate Rs 75,000 crore as additional revenue through indirect taxes.

"At a time when there is an overall gloomy situation of the economy, the situation demands that the burden of indirect taxes on the people need to be reduced," he said.

Jairam Ramesh said the sum and substance of the country is that the investor sentiment is subdued and is not buoyant to create growth.

"Whether the election results of Uttar Pradesh will provide the tonic for investor sentiment, whether the passage of the GST Bill or other Bills will provide the tonic for the investor sentiment, time alone will tell, but, I think, the Finance Minister owes it to him to acknowledge that today the crisis in the Indian economy is one of investor sentiment. "It is one of investor confidence and there is a need to restore that sentiment and restore that confidence if growth has to come back to the 7.5 to 8.0 trajectory, that the UPA government left when it demitted office," the Congress leader said.

He also asked the Finance Minister how much of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore has actually come back to banks as there is speculation that more than Rs 15.44 lakh crore has actually come to the banks.

"I think the Finance Minister owes it to the country to tell us how much of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore has actually come back into the banking system," he asked. He also claimed that more black money was unearthed during the last two years of UPA than in NDA and cited a written answer in this regard, where it was stated that prior to 2014 as much as Rs 1,31,000 crore was unearthed against Rs 1,25,000 during the Narendra Modi government.

Ramesh also took on the government over setting up of the SIT to tackle black money, saying it was a necessity for the government following a Supreme Court order.

V Vijaysai Reddy (YSR Congress) termed the Union Budget as "historic" in terms of doing away with a separate Railways Budget and also as it was presented in the backdrop of the demonetization initiative.

Citing various benefits, he suggested shifting of the financial year to make it January-December instead of the system of April-March. Speaking about Andhra Pradesh, he said the state is on the brink of bankruptcy.

"The central government has not come to the rescue of the state government. I have no hesitation in saying that the state has been served a raw deal in this Budget," Reddy said.

Citing interest burden and excise duties, he said the revenue share of the state has fallen and it required assistance from the central government.

Shantaram Naik (Congress) attacked the government on its various initiatives like 'Make-in-India and 'Start-up India'.

He said there is "total confusion" and dearth of clarity on these schemes on the part of the government. "Can government tell us which agreements it has inked with foreign countries for 'Make-in-India? There is total confusion. If you ask different secretaries, they will come out with their own different versions of the initiative," Naik said. Questioning government's 'Start-Up India' initiative, he said only a "few per cent" of the people have warmed up to it.

"Which are the businesses under 'Start-Up India' which have been supported by the banks," he asked the government.

Naik said around 30-40 lakh people in private sector lost jobs due to demonetization. "Besides, over 100 people died and the government did not agree with us to even condole the deaths of these people," Naik lamented.

Rangasayee Ramakrishna (BJP) said the government is moving in the right direction in terms of Budget. He suggested that there was a need to work on providing skill oriented training with focus on job assurance.

Trinamool member Vivek Gupta said West Bengal does not get its share of revenues in the cess and surcharge levied by the Centre.

CPI(M) member A Somaprasad demanded job reservation in the private sector. He also spoke about the low allocation for the welfare of SC/ST in the budget.

Congress member P Bhattacharya said there should be uniform procurement system of food grains in the entire country. BJP member Basawaraj Patil urged the government to complete all rail projects in Karnataka.

The government, with the help of Niti Aayog, should prepare a comprehensive economic policy particularly in the field of health, education and industry, he added.

Congress member Anandbhaskar Rapolu said allocation for health and social sector should be enhanced.