"Politically motivated": TMC's Kalyan Banerjee criticises Sitharaman's reply to budget debate

New Delhi [India], February 11 (ANI): Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee on Tuesday criticized Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's reply to the Union Budget debate in the Lok Sabha and said it was "politically motivated, biased, and unsatisfactory".
"When have you released funds to the states? You have not given the data. Which state is not in a position to spend?" he asked.
In her reply to the marathon debate, Sitharaman countered opposition allegations and said capital budget outlays have not come down.
She said that the government is using almost the entire borrowed resources for financing effective capital expenditure.
The minister said that effective capital expenditure is projected at 15.48 lakh crore as against 13.18 lakh crore in the revised esitmates of 2024-25.
She said the effective capital expenditure for 2025-26 is 4.3 per cent of GDP as compared to fiscal deficit target of 4.4 per cent.
Capital expenditure, or capex, is used to set up long-term physical or fixed assets.
Effective capital expenditure includes core capital outlays and the grants in aid to states for creation of capital assets. Though the grants in aid for creation of capital assets is accounted in Budget as revenue expenditure, they go for creating capital assets in the states, she said.
The difference between the two is minimal, she said explaining that it indicates that government is using almost the entire borrowed resources for financing effective capital expenditure.
"The borrowings are not going for revenue expenditure or committed expenditure or any of those kinds. It's going only for creating capital assets. So in effect, the government intends to use about 99 per cent of borrowed resources to finance effective capital expenditure in the upcoming 2025-26 financial year," she said. (ANI)