Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday accused the Congress leadership of manufacturing allegations of corruption and “seriously compromising India’s security” by asking details of the Rafale fighter aircraft deal, which should always remain classified.
Replying to the discussion on the General Budget 2018-19, the Finance Minister said when the Opposition could not find any case of corruption against the Modi government, they were indulging in manufacturing allegations of corruption against the NDA government.
“The new trend is to manufacture allegations of corruptions against the NDA,” Jaitley said referring to Rahul Gandhi’s recent charges. Citing statements made by former Defence Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony, he said it was in the larger interest of the country’s security not to disclose the price of defence transactions. “So please ask your party president to go back to Pranab Mukherjee and take certain lessons from him,” the Finance Minister said without taking Rahul Gandhi’s name.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor interrupted Jaitley and said ,”You are accountable to Parliament to disclose expenditure of public money”. Amid disruptions made by several Congress leaders, Jaitley responded quickly “NDA is as accountable as UPA”.
The Finance Minister also hit out at the Congress government for not making any structural reforms from 2004 to 2014. He said demonetisation, use of Aadhaar card and GST implementation were major reforms which would pay dividends in the coming years. “Finance ministers of Congress-ruled states were aware of benefits of GST and we managed to stabilise
the situation within a few months which in other countries took several years,” Jaitley said.He said despite this India’s growth is fastest in the region, fiscal deficit is under control, and government is following the fiscal discipline to check fiscal deficit and currency stabilisation. Even IMF and World Bank have recognised India as one of the fastest growing economies among its peers.
On the disinvestment front, he said the government would only keep PSUs which have strategic importance and the rest should go to private sector. The money received from disinvestment should go for public welfare activities, he said.
The Finance Minister also responded to Opposition members demand to give relief on long term capital gains tax. “Last year nearly Rs 3,67,000 crore earned from equity were not taxed, most of them were large corporate houses, and high earners. We have only sought 10% tax on the earnings and give relief to the small investors for earnings up to Rs 1 lakh,” he said.
Former FM P Chidambaram on Thursday said the economy was limping, investments falling, jobs growth sluggish and exports failing, and there was little hope of “course correction” because the Union Budget for 2018-19 had only empty promises.
Initiating a General Discussion on the Budget in the Rajya Sabha amid constant disruption from Treasury Benches, he said the Economic Survey before the Budget had given ample diagnosis of the problems.
Instead of coming out with solutions, the Budget had only “jumlas” and talked of big schemes, without proper allocations.
When the Congress protested over BJP members’ shouting, just as Chidambaram started speaking, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the Congress members had shouted during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the Motion of Thanks debate in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The BJP members were angry, he said. The Congress members later shouted slogans when Bhupender Yadav (BJP) spoke in reply to Chidambaram’s speech.
Asking the government 12 questions on the management of the economy, Chidambaram said if the government said the economy grew by 6.4 per cent during the last year of the UPA Government (2013-14), the huge fall in crude prices gave it opportunities for “boom years” of growth.
However, no such thing happened. The import prices fell from $147 a barrel during the UPA Government’s time to $47 per barrel recently, he said.