New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP from Bolangir, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo Tuesday raised questions over Union government’s claim to meet the 3.4 per cent fiscal deficit and said that the government would find it difficult to achieve.
While speaking on behalf of the party on the Finance Bill, 2019, the BJD parliamentarian said the Finance Minister said in his speech that the fiscal deficit is going to be at 3.4 per cent. Singh Deo pointed out that every time we exceed fiscal deficit, we infect the value of the currency, increase inflation and reduce capital expenditure.
He further said that it would be very difficult for this government to stick to the fiscal deficit. “In 2019-20, the Finance Minister claimed 18 per cent increase in Goods and Services Tax (GST), notwithstanding this year, with two months to go, he revised GST collection to Rs 1 Lakh crore. The Indirect Taxes are scheduled to go down by Rs 1 lakh crore,” Singh Deo said.
“There are only two ways to meet the fiscal deficit either by disinvestment or by reducing expenditure. The government’s disinvestment program has also failed compounded by the Air India fiasco. The target for 2018-19 was Rs 80 thousand crore and disinvestment has only fetched Rs 35,532 crore until January end,” Sing Deo added.
While talking on expenditure, the BJD MP said the Union government has announced Rs 1.40 lakh crore to farmers. But only Rs 20,000 crore would be spent on the infrastructure development. He said we need to address the root cause of farmers’ issue only then we can empower them.
He also criticized the PM-KISAN scheme saying that it would cover only 30-40 per cent farmers while the KALIA scheme announced by Odisha covers 90 per cent farmers.
“If we are not able to acknowledge what is going wrong in our economy, we will not be able to correct it,” Singh Deo added.
Difficult for govt to meet deficit: BJD
