Budget skirts issues listed by economic survey, says Congress

India Budget: Former finance minister P Chidambaram claimed the budget failed to address major challenges spelt out by the economic survey, including the stress of US penal tariff, but it ended up cutting revenue expenditure for many key sectors besides demonstrating "a poor account of the management of the finances". "Our verdict is that the budget speech and the budget have failed the test of economic strategy and economic statesmanship," Chidambaram said while presenting the Opposition's perspective on the budget. "The most serious criticism of the budget speech is that the finance minister is not tired of adding to the number of schemes, programmes, missions, institutes, initiatives, funds, committees, hubs... I leave it to your imagination how many of these will be forgotten and vanish by next year," he added.

Alleging a poor account of the management of finances in 2025-26, he said: "Revenue receipts were short by ₹78,086 crore, total expenditure was short by ₹1,00,503 crore. Revenue expenditure was short by ₹75,168 crore and capital expenditure was cut by ₹1,44,376 crore (Centre ₹25,335 crore and states ₹1,19,041 crore). Not a word was said to explain this miserable performance. Actually, the Centre's capital expenditure has fallen from 3.2% of GDP in 2024-25 to 3.1% in 2025-26".

He claimed the budget speech didn't address the economic survey-listed challenges, including the stress of the US penal tariffs, growing trade deficit, especially with China, low Gross Fixed Capital formation, the uncertain FDI flow outlook, slow pace of fiscal consolidation and the gap between inflation numbers and the ground realities.


Congress' Rahul Gandhi posted on X: "Youth without jobs. Falling manufacturing. Investors pulling out capital. Household savings plummeting. Farmers in distress. Looming global shocks -- all ignored. A Budget that refuses course correction, blind to India's real crises".

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said the budget "is directionless, visionless and mission-less. The budget is anti-poor, anti-youth, anti-women and anti-farmer". DMK's Kanimozhi said: "Even elections couldn't persuade the BJP government to remember Tamil Nadu in this budget".