FM's speech lengthiest, lacked farsightedness, Sharad Pawar on budget

Sharad Pawar. Picture/Twitter Sharad Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said the budget speech delivered by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was the "lengthiest", but lacked farsightedness and direction. Pawar alleged that the budget lacked vision and clarity on doubling farmers' income by 2022, the target set by the Modi government, and added that the automobile sector,
too, has been "completely ignored".

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar also criticised the budget. He said the state was to get Rs 44,672 crore funds from the central taxes as per the 2019-20 budget estimates, but will now get Rs 36,220 crore following the revised estimates, which is "serious and shocking". "#Budget2020 focuses on Agriculture Warehousing but lacks vision and clarity on Doubling Farmers' income. It is still a distant dream," Sharad Pawar tweeted. "#Budget2020 Automobile sector has been completely ignored and the unemployment issue is not addressed fairly. It was the lengthiest speech but lacked farsightedness and direction," the former Union minister added on the microblogging site.

Ajit Pawar said despite being the highest taxpayer, the state is "missing" from the budgetary provisions announced
by Sitharaman. "Maharashtra was to get Rs 44,672 crore from central taxes as per the 2019-20 budget estimates. But according to the revised budget estimates, it will now get Rs 8,553 crore lesser, that is, only Rs 36,220 crore will come its way, which is serious and shocking," the minister was quoted as saying in a statement.

The Maharashtra finance minister said the state transport service in BJP-ruled Karnataka's Bengaluru has been declared 20 percent share capital in the budget, while the transport services in Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur find no mention
in it. He said unemployment is at its peak at present in the country, while the economic crisis is looming large.

"In this scenario, measures to attract foreign investment were expected. But nothing concrete was announced in the budget," he added. He alleged that the real estate sector, too, got no relief in the budget. "The share market plunged 1,178 points after the budget was announced, which is an indicator of disappointment among the industry sector and investors," he added.

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