Pre-Budget consultations: 'Politically motivated', says Centre as trade unions boycott talks

The finance ministry's pre-Budget consultations with more than a hundred participants from different sectors have been very detailed and the issue raised by trade unions that they were not given ample time is mischievous, politically motivated and a deliberate attempt to politicise the meetings, a government official said. "Open consultations have been encouraged at the highest levels of the government," the official said, pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also shared the MyGov link through social media platforms, inviting all the citizens to participate in the Budget-making process.

This showed the intent and willingness of the leadership to engage in open consultations, the official said.

On Monday, some trade unions boycotted the pre-Budget meetings on the grounds that the time given for presentation was too short and that the government should reconvene physical meetings with reasonable time allocations for effective consultations.


"The issue raised by the trade unions is a mischievous, politically motivated, and deliberate attempt to politicise the pre-Budget talks," said the above quoted official, adding that the consultations were held in virtual mode to provide ease and save collective time and energy of all the participants. "The three minutes allotted to speak are to put across the critical points of the written representation or proposal," he argued.

All the groups were asked to send their detailed suggestions in a written manner so that they could be suitably looked into, he said.