‘Couched in generalities, no substance’: Opposition on Budget 2024

Opposition leaders on Thursday criticised Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s interim Budget for being high on rhetoric, low on facts and failing to address specific problems of the economy.

At 58 minutes, it was Sitharaman’s shortest Budget speech.

With the term of the current Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government ending in coming months, a full Budget for the next fiscal will likely be presented in July, after a new government is sworn in.

An interim Budget only outlines the expected income and expenditure of the Centre for the upcoming financial year. Interim Budgets typically do not include significant policy changes or announcements of new major schemes.

“As usual [it had] a lot of rhetorical language,” said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. “Very little concrete on implementation. [The finance minister] talked about foreign investment without acknowledging that that investment has come down significantly as a percentage of GDP [gross domestic product].”

Tharoor added that the speech was “couched in vague language like ‘confidence’ and ‘hope’ and so on” and made serious omissions, from failing to address performance of the Production Linked Incentive schemes for domestic manufacturing – which is utilising a significant portion of government funds – to record unemployment rates and declining participation of women in the labour force.

“I must say...

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