Budget has no roadmap to push economy to 5 trillion dollar mark: Shashi Tharoor

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said the Union Budget 2019-20 reflects "incrementalism sans vision" and the government's aspiration to push the economy to the 5 trillion dollar-mark does not have any roadmap.

"I think there is a fundamental problem. It reflects the same incrementalism, there is no bold idea, no vision, it mentions aspirational numbers like five trillion dollar economy without any roadmap of how to get that," he said. The Budget reiterated many existing programmes of the government, but failed to do anything for the ordinary Indian citizen, the Thiruvananthapuram MP told PTI on the sidelines of an event in Chennai.

"On the contrary, the annual financial statement gave people the burden of an additional two rupee plus for every litre of diesel and petrol when we are already paying the highest fuel prices in the world, which will have a knock on effect on everything," he said.

Such a hike in levy on petrol and diesel will hit the common man since the extra cost will be passed on to ordinary consumers, Tharoor said, adding the Budget has done "disservice to the ordinary person".