Not Money Matter, Just Opposition Chatter: Finance Ministry Counters Budget Attack With Facts

The ‘preferential treatment’ tag attached to the budget has become the latest flashpoint between the government and the opposition, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accusing the Opposition of double speak.

She replied: “Which finance minister has mentioned all states? Just because I have mentioned Andhra Pradesh and Bihar specifically doesn’t mean that others are not important.”

NITI AAYOG MEETING, BUDGETARY CONSULTATIONS, FLOOD RELIEF

Top finance ministry sources say that the decision of the Tamil Nadu CM and Congress CMs to skip the Niti Aayog meeting on July 27 is a lost opportunity. “They could have confronted PM Narendra Modi directly with a copy of the budget and asked him why they have got less money than expected,” they said.

During budgetary consultations, CMs like Telangana’s Revanth Reddy, Himachal’s Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu met the PM asking for more funds. In fact, sources say the PM heard the Himachal CM out and decided to allocate funds for flood relief. This is the grudge of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who asked why she did not get funds when her state too faced floods.

Sources replied, “Before the budget, the PM had announced 12-13 schemes and if this was not attention to the poll-bound state, then what was?”

This apart, sources said that any new scheme announced and increased allocation for existing schemes such as Awaas Yojana and Aarogya Yojana would benefit all states. It was up to the states to ask for the funds they need. In fact, in Maharashtra alone, the government had announced projects worth Rs 17 lakh crore, they said.

INDEXATION NEW INHERITANCE TAX?

This is not the only perception built by the opposition that the ministry is fighting. The other big tax, which the opposition is calling the backdoor entry of inheritance tax, is removing of indexation.

Sources said, “The new tax rate without indexation is beneficial in most cases. For example, for a property held for five years, the new regime is beneficial when property has appreciated 1.7 times or more. For a property held for 10 years, it is beneficial when the value has increased 2.4 times or more.”

The budget has now become a battle of optics and one-upmanship. And the Opposition is hoping that the government will blink first, even though the finance ministry is armed with facts and statistics to call the bluff.