Post-Budget LIVE: FM dismissed inflation ‘in 10 words’: Chidambaram in RS

The decision to cut “too high” import duty on gold will help in containing smuggling and boost the country’s exports of gems and jewellery, CBIC Chairman Sanjay Kumar Malhotra said on Wednesday.

In the last financial year, seizures of gold made by Customs formation and the DRI together were around 4.8 tonnes, up from 3.5 tonnes in 2022-23.

The Budget has announced a drastic cut in import duty on the precious metal to 6 per cent from 15 per cent.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman said that the duty was hiked in July 2022 as at that time there was a worsening current account deficit (CAD) due to the geo-political situation.

To cut down on the non-essential imports, the duty was increased.

CAD in 2022-23 was 2 per cent of GDP, which came down to 0.7 per cent in 2023-24. In the March quarter, it was a surplus.

“In that count the position is now better,” he said, adding that “15 per cent is too high a rate of duty on gold”.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said Bihar and Andhra Pradesh got “pakoda and jalebi” on their plates while other states got nothing as he raised the issue of alleged discrimination meted out to opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget.

Engaging in raillery and hurling barbs at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the House, the Congress veteran called Sitharaman “mataji” and said she is an expert in speaking, prompting Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to quip that she was more like his daughter.

As he made his forceful assertion of states being discriminated against, Dhankhar called Sitharaman to speak and clarify on the issue. But Kharge was in no mood of relenting and continued to speak.

“Let me speak,” Kharge told the Chair. “Mataji bolne mein toh expert hain mujhe maloom hai. (Mataji is an expert in speaking, I am aware of that).” Dhankar shot back that Sitharaman, 64, was like a daughter to Kharge, 82.

“Yeh mataji nahi, aap ke beti ke barabar hai,” he said.

Taking a swipe at Sitharaman, who represents Karnataka in the Upper House, Kharge said he was expecting that Karnataka would get the most but it got nothing.

“Yeh kursi bachane ke liye yeh sab hua hai... We condemn it and protest against it,” he said before leading INDIA bloc parties out of the House, terming the budget a “kursi-bachao” document.

Rs 1,112.57 crore has been allocated for the installation of the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system Kavach in the financial year of 2024-25, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Responding to the questions raised by DMK MPs Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and Rani Srikumar on the details regarding the funds allocated and utilised for installation of Kavach system in the country, Vaishnaw said, “The funds utilized on Kavach works so far is Rs 1,216.77 crore. The allocation of funds during the year 2024-25 is Rs 1,112.57 crore.”

“Implementation of Kavach involves execution of many activities, such as installation of Station Kavach at each and every station, installation of RFID tags throughout the track length, installation of Telecom Towers throughout the section, laying of optical Fibre cable along the track and provision of Loco Kavach on each and every Locomotive running on Indian Railways,” he added.

The minister stated that so far Kavach has been deployed on 1,465 Route km and 144 locomotives on South Central Railway. He added that Kavach equipment has been installed on 285 stations, 319 locos and 1,384 km of rail track.

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Asserting that the Union Budget in many ways is emblematic of the government’s “economic mismanagement and financial recklessness”, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said the brakes of the Indian economy have fallen off but this government’s horn keeps getting louder.

Participating in the general discussion on the Budget in the Lok Sabha, Tharoor also took a swipe at the BJP over the renaming of Ayushman wellness centres as Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, saying a certain constituency in Uttar Pradesh should have taught the BJP never again to “exploit a mandir for scoring political goals”.

“This underwhelming Budget is a woefully missed opportunity. After all, this was the government’s chance to prove to the citizens that after the colossal setback the BJP suffered in the recently concluded general election, the finance minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) and the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) have actually listened to the people of the country.

“But once again they have let the people of India down,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.

“The Budget in many ways is an emblem of this government’s economic mismanagement and financial recklessness made all the more worse by its divisive policies,” Tharoor said.

The Congress leader said that when it comes to sectors as indispensable as public healthcare, the mantra of the BJP as with everything else has been to “rebrand and not revamp”.

“Honestly, hearing the inflated claims of the ruling party after this week’s Budget and all the TV shows I had to appear on yesterday, I am reminded of a garage mechanic saying to the owner of a car, ‘hum aapke brakes toh theek nahi kar sake, is liye horn ki aawaaz ko badha diya hai’ (I could not repair your car’s brakes but I have turned up the volume of the horn),” he said.

“That is what the government is doing. The brakes of the Indian economy have fallen off but this government’s horn keeps getting louder,” he said.

“This government thinks that rhetoric is a substitute for action,” the Congress leader said.

The priorities of the BJP chiefly revolve around appeasing its two regional allies, forgetting that there are 26 other states and eight Union territories whose people have nothing to be happy about, Tharoor said, in an apparent reference to the JD(U) from Bihar and the TDP from Andhra Pradesh.

Tharoor pointed out that the people of Andhra Pradesh have less reason to be happy at the supposed allocations made to them in the Budget.

“The Budget only commits to arranging Rs 15,000 crore towards the development of Amaravati. This is not an allocation. It merely entails the facilitation of loans by the Centre from multilateral development organisations to your state instead of amounting to formal financial support from the Centre,” he argued.

This commitment will only add to Andhra’s debt burden, he added.

Four other NDA-rules states — Bihar, Assam, Sikkim and Uttarakhand — have received support for natural calamities, he said. On the other hand, the INDIA bloc-ruled states find themselves cast out and ignored, Tharoor said.

“Indeed Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and my home state of Kerala have time and again asked for funds in the wake of natural calamities such as cyclones to rapid coastal erosions and they have gotten none,” he said.

Bihar received Rs 26,000 crore for its highways but Karnataka got nothing for critical road infrastructure projects in Bengaluru, Tharoor said.

For the government of India, it seems some states are more equal than others, he said.

Thirteen railway stations of the Delhi division will be re-developed under the ‘Amrit Bharat’ scheme, the Northern Railway said on Wednesday, highlighting budgetary allocations and its utilisation.

The stations are Adarsh Nagar Delhi, Anand Vihar, Bijwasan, Old Delhi, Delhi Cantt., Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Delhi Shahdara, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Narela, New Delhi, Sabzi Mandi, Safdarjung and Tilak Bridge, it said in a statement.

According to Northern Railway, the division’s annual average budget outlay is Rs 2,582 crore and in 10 years between 2014 and 2024, the division has constructed 2.4 km of new tracks and electrified 4 km of tracks to achieve 100 per cent track electrification.

Highlighting the ongoing projects, it said that four projects involving 302 km of new tracks have been planned with a budget of Rs 4, 778 crore.

Thirteen rail flyovers and under-bridges have been constructed since 2014, the statement said.

The BJP on Wednesday lashed out at the Congress and other Opposition parties for criticising the Union Budget and said it reveals their political frustration and negative attitude towards “some backward states” that need special focus and assistance for development.

BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao said the Budget has been welcomed by “one and all” but opposition parties are coming out with “immature and negative reactions” against it.

“The entire country looks at this as a progressive, pro-people, pro-poor, pro-farmer and pro-employment Budget. It is a Budget which has actually laid out a vision for Viksit Bharat,” he said at a press conference at the BP headquarters.

With more than Rs 48 lakh crore overall budgetary expenditure, the Union Budget 2024-25 has kept its focus on every section of the society and every state in the country, he said, adding special focus has been given to backward states, particularly eastern region, for their development.

But, “some allocations” have been made to “some states” keeping in view their developmental needs and long neglect, Rao said in an apparent reference to budgetary announcements made by the finance minister for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

“So, given this background, the Congress and INDI alliance’s opposition to the budget reveals their political frustration. It shows their negative attitude towards some backward states which need special focus and development,” the BJP leader charged.

“Andhra Pradesh certainly needs special financial assistance because of the ravages of the division and bifurcation the state suffered due to the Congress,” he added.

Rao said that the Congress, which is criticising the budget, had in its poll manifesto mentioned that it would give special category state status to Andhra Pradesh if voted to power.

“They make such kind of hollow promises because they do realise that they betrayed the people of Andhra Pradesh and they cannot get out of it. They have been reduced to 1 per cent vote share party in Andhra Pradesh (in recent elections),” the BJP MP said.

“I want to tell Rahul Gandhi that if he doesn’t want to learn even after getting such a massive jolt, people of Andhra Pradesh will never forgive him,” he added.

PM Narendra Modi is not working for people who voted for his party but only for parties supporting him, DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran alleged on Wednesday while criticising the Union Budget for 2024-25 for failing to meet the aspirations of the middle class.

Participating in a discussion on the budget for 2024-25 in the Lok Sabha, the Chennai Central MP said nearly Rs 4 lakh crore had been promised as subsidy to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar to support Modi being prime minister.

“I would like to ask, from where is the money going to come, at whose cost are you going to do this? I think the time has come for the prime minister to take some good advice and follow our Chief Minister MK Stalin. When MK Stalin became the CM of Tamil Nadu, he said, ‘I will work not only for the people who voted for me but also for the people who did not vote for me, it is my duty’. Today, our PM is not working for the people who voted for his party but only for the parties which are supporting him,” Maran alleged.

According to Maran, the Central government is penalising the people of Tamil Nadu for not voting for the BJP. “Demands from our chief minister are for our people, but why are you penalising us? Because we didn’t elect you? We didn’t elect you because you are two faced. You always want to use us, abuse us. You want to split us in the name of religion and caste...,” Maran claimed.

“Till now how many times has the PM said he likes Tamil language? But what has he done for the people of Tamil Nadu?” he went on to say.