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Sougata Roy
Credit: Sansad TV
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is not a "trained economist" and the Budget presented by her was based on notes received from the Prime Minister's Office as she has "no original ideas", Trinamool MP Saugata Roy claimed on Thursday.
Participating in a debate on the Union Budget, the TMC MP said the Budget for 2024-25 is not for the common man but it is the "Andhra-Bihar" Budget.
"I do not expect Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) to be like Dr Manmohan Singh, she is not a PhD from Oxford, not even like Chidambaram who has got a management degree from Harvard. She is from our own JNU, but the problem is she is bereft of new ideas, which is why this Budget reads very dull.
"All the notes for the Budget have come from the PMO, she has no original ideas...," he added.
Roy, a four-time MP from the Dum Dum constituency in West Bengal, said, "You (Sitharaman) have been a minister for seven years... You are not a trained economist, you have been lucky that way....".
Some members of the House raised voices opposing his statement.
"What is incorrect about it? She is not a trained economist," Roy said cutting them short.
"She is no Manmohan, she is not Chidambaram, she is not even Anantha Nageswaran...." he added.
The MP said the scheme announced by the Centre to offer loans upto Rs 10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions is already being offered by the West Bengal government.
"The exact same scheme, same amount of Rs 10 lakh... this is not common man's Budget. This is 'Andhra-Bihar' Budget. They have allotted Rs 59,000 crore to Bihar and Rs 15,000 crore to Andhra Pradesh," he said.
Several members of the Opposition have alleged the Union Budget was "discriminatory" against the non-NDA-ruled states and accused the prime minister of running a "shaky and vulnerable" coalition government. The ruling BJP has rejected the charge and described the budgetary provisions as a tool to achieve the dream of 'Vikisit Bharat'.