Kolkata, Feb 1 (IANS) Trinamool Congress, on Sunday, flayed the budget proposals for the financial year 2026-27 presented by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the floor of the Parliament earlier in the day on grounds that budgetary expenditure allocation for crucial sectors have been curtailed in the budget proposals.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, had countered that Trinamool Congress does not hold the moral stand of giving suggestions on handling the country’s finance considering the poor fiscal management pursued by the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal government for the last 15 years.

Reacting on the Union Budget proposals for 2026-27, the former West Bengal Finance Minister and the current Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the state government, Amit Mitra, said that in the education sector, the budgetary allocation this time had been reduced to 2.6 per cent of the total budgeted expenditure from 3.8 per cent, which was in 2015-16.

“When worldwide, there had been a trend of increasing expenditure under the education head, the Indian government had decided to curtail it. Similarly, the expenditure for the welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and minority community this time has been curtailed to 0.19 per cent of the total expenditure as against 0.21 per cent in 2015-16. Such curtailment proves that such crucial sectors are not in the focus of the current Union government,” Mitra added.

BJP legislator and the former CEA to the Union government, Ashok Kumar Lahiri, said that the financial matter of the country cannot be managed by resorting to unbridled market borrowing and rampant increase in recurring expenditure, a policy which is exactly followed by the West Bengal government for the last 15 years.

“What will the Union Finance Minister do? Will she allow market borrowing as much as she desires, which is exactly what is happening in West Bengal? Will she allow increasing non-productive expenditure?” Lahiri asked.

–IANS

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