Picking holes into the “transformational” Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Opposition on Wednesday said it lacked vision and reflected a ‘mismatch” with the concerns expressed by the Government’s own Economic Survey.

“The Economic Survey, prepared by Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, has expressed certain concerns that have not been addressed by the Budget… It had cautioned the government against fiscal activism… There is no vision for growth in the light of falling growth, rising NPAs (non-performing assets and the (Donald) trump factor that has given rise to protectionism and assault on our IT industry,” said senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily while initiating a debate in Lok Sabha on the Union Budget.

Moily highlighted the slowdown in manufacturing, unemployment, falling public and private sector investment, which had been aggravated by demonetisation.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s use of the term “surgical strike” to justify demonetisation to “fight corruption, black money and fake currency”, Moily said that Modi had “borrowed” these words from Pakistan’s demonetisation order two years ago.

“It dawned on the Prime Minister that Pakistan has taken a right step. Let’s follow it. For the first time, we have followed Pakistan. It is unprecedented...,” he said.

Moily cited two arguments on demonetisation -- “the economic argument has fallen through, but the moral argument continues”, he said, quoting from reports that said that while Modi and BJP had toned down the moral narrative outside, they did not do so “in this House.”

Criticising the curbs imposed on cash withdrawals, the Congress leader accused the government of “taking banks away from the poor” and destroying the trust of the people in banking, which late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had done by nationalising banks had bringing banking to the doorstep of the people.

Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy, while condoling the death of 150 people due to demonetisation, said people were expecting some balm to ease the pain, as the government had expected a windfall of about Rs 4-5 lakh crore, but as much as Rs 15 lakh crore has come back into the banking system,” adding that demonetisation had “harmed the economy”.

However, the Budget had increased the total expenditure by only 6 per cent to Rs21.46 lakh crore, which is less than 10 per cent increase every fiscal. Also, there is no measure in the Budget to increase employment and MGNREGA allocation has also increased by only 10-15 per cent.

Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Deve Gowda, who rarely speaks in the House, drew the government’s attention to the paltry allocation for agriculture and demanded more attention to the pathetic plight of farmers across the country, especially coconut and tobacco growers in Karnataka.

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