New Delhi: BJP leader Arun Jaitley today
said Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee's budget was inspired by
his predecessor P Chidambaram's earlier proposals.
"Finance ministers have developed, I think it is
particularly true of Chidambaram when he presented his budget,
he could package it well, therefore the devil in his budget
was always in the detail. I think Pranab Mukherjee also took a
leaf out of his budget," Jaitley said at a budget discussion
organised by the party's chartered accountants cell.
He said like the former finance minister, Mukherjee
too has kept the details for later notification, because "he
knew nobody would bother to read the notification for the next
36-48 hours".
Jaitley further said that taxes on oil is the
"government's methodology of earning through what is an ideal
short produce in India.
"This is only the Pranab Mukherjee version of oil
price increase, the Murli Deora compendium which is the oil
marketing companies who want to transfer their burden is yet
to come..."
As part of the budgetary proposals of 2010-11, the
government hiked customs duty on petrol and diesel to 7.5 per
cent from 2.5 per cent while excise duty was raised by Re one
on non-branded (normal) petrol and diesel.
Meanwhile, the BJP has said it would continue to
corner the government on price rise and bring cut motions
in Lok Sabha to protest increase in prices of diesel and
fertiliser and imposition of service tax on health insurance
and housing loans in this session of Parliament.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 04, 2010, 00:11