Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday said the newly announced schemes “to boost the job sector” were not inspiring confidence given their structure and design.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced three employment-linked incentive (ELI) schemes and an internship proposal to encourage private companies to create more jobs. She announced a second scheme to incentivise the top 500 companies to provide internships to one crore youths in five years.

During the discussion on the budget, Chidambaram said he was unable to get the whole picture on the three ELI schemes and was not confident if they could generate 2.9 crore jobs as aimed.

In paragraph 20 of the budget speech, Sitharaman said the government would provide a month’s salary to all new employees registered with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), encouraging the hiring of first-time workers.

In paragraph 21, the minister said that the government will provide portions of the EPFO contributions of both the employee and employer, with certain provisos, for four years. In paragraph 22, she said the government would reimburse EPFO employer contributions up to ₹3,000 a month for new employees. In paragraph 51, she said one crore youths would get internship opportunities for 12 months with the top 500 companies over five years, against a monthly allowance of ₹5,000.

“My colleagues and I were unable to get the whole picture of the ELI schemes. It seems paragraph 20 talks about the same target industries (mentioned) in paragraph 21 and paragraph 21 talks about the same target industries as (mentioned) in paragraph 22. But in paragraph 51, we are suddenly let down when you state only 500 industries are selected. The numbers do not gel. ELI is an interesting idea but it does not inspire confidence,” Chidambaram said.