Budget 2023: "Many Budgets Just Depress People, This Is One Of Them": Manish Sisodia

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia called the Union Budget 2023-24 announced by the BJP-led Centre on Wednesday nothing but a 'jumla' and said it would only immerse the country in debt, while labelling the exercise "depressing".

Talking to PTI, Mr Sisodia, who is also the Finance minister of Delhi, said this budget will add a debt of Rs 15 lakh crore.

"Today's budget is dangerous for the country. Many budgets just depress people and this is one of those. In the long-term, this will be a very dangerous budget as it will push just push India in debt," he told PTI.

Earlier in the day, during a press conference, Mr Sisodia labelled the budget as jumla.

"We all know that the BJP has made terms like 'acche din' a jumla. The budget by BJP-led Centre is nothing but a jumla. We have heard many such jumlas in the past -- like introduction of bullet trains or the promise of doubling farmers' income or creating 60 lakh jobs," he said at the press conference.

Alleging that the budget will further immerse the country in debt, he said the Centre had a debt of Rs 53 lakh crore till 2014 and during two successive terms of the BJP-led NDA government, the country came under a debt of Rs 150 lakh crore and "this budget will further immerse the country under additional Rs 15 lakh crore debt".

"When the government increases the loan amount, economy only goes down and it can never come up again. When loan amount increases, it starts a vicious cycle of inflation and unemployment and only this will happen," he stressed.

The budget is "disappointing" for Delhiites, he said, adding that only Rs 325 crore was allocated for the national capital under the subhead of grant in lieu of taxes even though Delhi pays income tax of more than Rs 1.75 lakh crore. The amount of Rs 325 crore has remained unchanged for the last 22 years, Mr Sisodia claimed.

"For Delhi it's a budget with no benefits. We pay Rs 1.78 lakh crores as tax but in return we are allocated Rs 325 crore only. Rest of the states get 42 per cent of the central taxes and Delhi gets only Rs 325 crore. Delhi is always treated badly. This is not only with the Aam Aadmi Party government. This has been the situation since 2001. Twenty-two years have passed but we get the same amount. This is injustice to Delhi," he said.

The deputy chief minister also rued that even though municipal corporations of other states get funds from the Centre, the MCD does not get any such funds.

He claimed that the budget had nothing to offer for employment generation or controlling inflation and opined that it "only had announcements for the superrich".

Mr Sisodia also claimed that the health and education budgets had been slashed.

"The FM was saying this a budget for inclusive growth but if it won't spend on education and health, how is it inclusive? There has been no announcement of building a new hospital despite there being a shortage of doctors per person in the country. The situation is worse than even poorer nations.

"They have decreased health budget from 2.2 per cent to 1.98 per cent. If you ask about education to any leader from the Centre, they say they have brought the National Education Policy. The NEP talks about allocating six per cent of the GDP to education. Leave aside six per cent per cent, the budget has been decreased from 2.64 to 2.5 per cent. Then they beat the drum for introducing the NEP," he said.

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