New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI): Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday described that the budget presented in Parliament the previous day as ‘incomplete’ claiming that it has not taken into account all the challenges.
He expressed concern over unusually high government borrowing on account of large fiscal deficit, declining domestic savings from 37-38 per cent to 31 per cent in the current year leading to a lower rate of investment.
At a post-budget analysis at Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce, the former BJP leader who has joined the Trinamool Congress also alleged that rising inequality in the society would hamper the growth process of the economy and raise unemployment rate.
Sinha stated that global inflation along with domestic inflation will force the rate of interest to rise.
Advisor to the West Bengal government and its former finance minister Amit Mitra on Tuesday claimed that India is the only country in the world with stagflation, a situation when both unemployment and inflation rise.
At the event, senior partner of Khaitan & Co, N G Khaitan, said unemployment has been a huge issue and MGNREGA would have been a great help.
The budget reduces the MGNREGA outlay to Rs 73000 crore from Rs 98000 crore. MGNREGA is aimed at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year.
Khaitan said that during the lockdown period, India had achieved merger, acquisition and amalgamation worth USD 5 Trillion.
Ernst & Young managing partner, Kolkata, Harish Agarwal felt that inflation should be contained within 3 per cent.