New Delhi. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that the Agniveer scheme will help keep the armed forces young and combat-ready and there is no need to do politics on this subject. Rejecting the criticism of this scheme, the Finance Minister said that the recruitment of youth in the age group of 17.5-21 years will actually ensure that the Indian soldiers on the front line are ready in every way.
Responding to the discussion on the budget for the financial year 2024-25 in the Upper House, he said, “An expected outcome of the scheme is that the armed forces will have a very young force by recruiting young men in the age group of 17.5-21 years.” The Finance Minister said, “And I do not think we need to worry unnecessarily that this will create any kind of distortion. Not at all. It has been implemented with the approval of the armed forces.”
He said, “Agniveer is a scheme that we have brought with the commitment to keep our armed forces ready for war and to bring young and fit people into the army.” Sitharaman was responding to comments made by senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram during the general discussion on the Union Budget. The Finance Minister emphasized that the Agniveer scheme is very important and it is in the national interest.
Budget strikes a balance between economic growth and employment: Sitharaman
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that the budget has struck a better balance between economic growth, employment, capital investment and fiscal consolidation. Responding to the discussion on the budget in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman also said that the absence of a state’s name in the budget speech does not mean that it has not received any money. The opposition is actually doing the work of spreading propaganda by protesting outside Parliament.
He said, “A better balance has been established between economic growth, employment, capital investment and fiscal strength in the budget. It will accelerate economic growth as well as increase employment.” Sitharaman said, “There is an emphasis on cooperative federalism in the budget. In the financial year 2024-25, Rs 22.91 lakh crore was given to the states, which is Rs 2.49 lakh crore more than last year.” The Finance Minister said, “If the name of a state is not mentioned in the budget speech, it does not mean that there is no allocation for it in the budget.” He said that funds have been allocated for every state in the budget.
She said, “If we look at the past budgets, even the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government did not mention the names of all the states in its budget speech.” Sitharaman said, “17 states were not named in the 2004-05 budget. Whereas 28 states were not named in the full budget of 2009-10. Many states were not mentioned in other budget speeches during her tenure. Did those states not get money?” Rejecting the allegations of the opposition, the Finance Minister said that the share in central taxes is given as per the recommendations of the Finance Commission and the Central Government is fully following it.
She said, “It should be clear that the amount is given to the states on the basis of net tax revenue and not on the basis of gross tax revenue. The net tax revenue is determined by the Comptroller and Audit General (CAG) after deducting cess, subsidy and tax collection cost.” Sitharaman said, “On the contrary, the NDA government has paid all the dues of the states on time.” She said that in the last 10 years, the capital expenditure of the Narendra Modi-led government was Rs 43.82 lakh crore, which was Rs 13.19 lakh crore during the UPA rule a decade ago.
The Finance Minister also said that the government is moving towards achieving the fiscal deficit target. The target is to bring it down to 4.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the current financial year. By the next financial year 2025-26, we want to bring it below 4.5 percent. The fiscal deficit was 5.6 percent in the financial year 2023-24. He rejected the opposition’s allegations that allocations for agriculture, health, education and other social sectors have been cut in the budget. He said that on the contrary, the allocation for all these sectors has increased compared to last year.
Sitharaman said that a provision of Rs 1.52 lakh crore has been made in the budget for agriculture and allied activities, which is Rs 8,000 crore more than the previous financial year. Similarly, the allocation on education has been increased to Rs 1.48 lakh crore. Referring to inflation, Sitharaman said, “Everyone knows that due to the wrong policies of the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, inflation had gone close to double digits for 22 months and it was higher than the global average. But today it is largely under control. This is the result of the better policies of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government.” Inflation based on the Consumer Price Index was 5.08 percent in June. Referring to the Agniveer scheme, the Finance Minister said that it will help in keeping the armed forces ready for war and young and there is no need to do politics on it.