Oppn to challenge ‘full budget’
Congress says it’s against House rules; BJP stands ground
NEW DELHI: Responding to media reports and speculation in certain circles that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance could break with convention and present a full budget instead of an interim one, the Congress said this was a “violation of conventions” and that it would challenge any such move on “the floor of the house”.
Traditionally, in an election year, the outgoing government presents an interim budget or so-called vote on account, although several governments, including the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in 2009, haven’t shied away from making policy pronouncements in these.
Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari said that if the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) were to present a full union budget, the party would “challenge it on the floor of the house in Parliament.”
“If the reports which are appearing in the public space are correct that on the 1st of February 2019 the NDA-BJP government is planning to present a full-fledged Union Budget then it would be a flagrant violation of all parliamentary conventions, procedures and traditions which have been followed over the past seven decades ever since the Constitution of India came into effect. The NDA-BJP government does not have the electoral mandate and it does not have the electoral legitimacy to present six full budgets in five years,” Tewari said at a press conference in New Delhi.
A communiqué from Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday stated union minister Piyush Goyal has temporarily been given charge of the finance ministry in view of Arun Jaitley’s indisposition and is likely to present the Union Budget.
This is the second time that Piyush Goyal will be the interim finance minister; the first was in May, last year when Arun Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant.
Hindustan Times on January, 4 reported that the Centre is likely to present a vote-on-account with an interim budget.
“The NDA-BJP government has already presented five fullfledged union budgets and it does not have the mandate or the legitimacy to present a sixth budget... A government which is going to be in office for a mere 56 days from the 1st of April 2019, how does it have the legitimacy leave alone the mandate to present a budget for 365 days?,” asked Tewari.
A senior BJP leader said: “Every budget is a budget. Every budget is for full year. In an election year, the government that return after the vote makes changes in the budget. We are winning.”
› The NDA-BJP govt does not have the electoral mandate and it does not have the electoral legitimacy to present six full budgets in five years
MANISH TEWARI , Congress leader