Budget tries to satisfy interest of Narendra Modi, Moody`s: Shashi Tharoor

New Delhi: Describing the union budget as a 'name changing exercise', Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said there are "alarming contradictions" as the budget tries to satisfy the interest of Modi as well as rating agency Moody's. 

"This budget falls between two stools, between sending reassuring signals to the rating agencies abroad and sending even more reassuring signals to voters at home. In other words, it tries to satisfy both Modi's interest and Moody's interest," he said while initiating the debate in the Lok Sabha. 

"Nowhere is this contradiction more apparent than in the alarming unreality of some of the government's numbers, specially a 3.5 per cent fiscal deficit, when it is very clear from the budget that there will be unplanned expenses and unrealised revenue," he said. 

The government has been meeting its fiscal deficit targets on the back of the aam aadmi instead of boosting the real incomes of the poor by cutting indirect taxes, he said. 

With regard to corporate tax, he said the rate cut did not happen.

"Making promises with no intention to fulfil them is not exactly an unfamiliar territory for this government. Too many promises from the previous budget have not been executed or fulfilled," he said. 

"We have often said this is not a game-changing government. It is a name-changing government," he added.

Taking a dig at the government, Tharoor said that unlike the black money estimates floated by the ruling party, you are not getting your economics from Baba Ramdev.