Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee described Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s fourth budget as one that documented a government “lost in big words, signifying nothing.

“Budget has zero for common people, who are getting crushed by unemployment and inflation. Govt. is lost in big words signifying nothing. A Pegasus spin budget,” Mamata, who holds the state's finance portfolio, tweeted immediately after Sitharaman ended her speech in Parliament.

Mamata’s principal chief advisor and former Bengal Finance Minister read the fine print to decipher what Budget 2022 holds for Indians.

Mitra said the budget had not addressed any one single issue plaguing the Indian economy burdened with rising unemployment, inflation with a global pandemic raging for two years threatening to derail all economic activities for the last two years.

“The centre has not announced any scheme for the victims of Covid, who lost their lives in the epidemic. A lot of words were said but what the budget actually means we had to look for in the fine print,” said Mitra, addressing a virtual news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

The Duke University alumni, who had helmed Bengal’s precarious financial situation for over 10 years before hanging up his boot, called the Union Budget “thoughtless.. “Is the budget for women? Youth? Poor and disadvantaged? Middle class? Whose budget is this?” Mitra asked.

The former finance minister said the Centre had not introduced any schemes to help the various social segments, made of individuals fighting an unequal battle. “Under the centrally-sponsored schemes for which the states received financial assistance no new schemes have been announced. There are no social protection schemes, nothing for the elderly, no schemes for those who lost their lives to Covid. No schemes for augmenting farm income. There are no schemes for the salaried middle class,” said Mitra. The former Bengal finance minister, who headed the GST council earlier, questioned why the Union finance had made no mention of the external debt of the country.

“It isn’t me, but the economic survey released by the central government has pegged the external debt of India at US $ 600 billion, which if converted into rupees stands at Rs 44.7lakh crore. In the budget won’t you mention how this external debt will be controlled?” Mitra asked.

He also questioned why the Centre did not admit to the number of unemployed in the country.

“There is no direct statement on employment, how jobs would be generated. First admit there are three crore unemployed. Complete silence on the debt-GDP ratio and inflation,” he said.

Mitra said the only scheme mentioned by the Union finance minister had actually exposed the anti-federalism stance of the Centre.

“They claimed to have introduced a scheme for providing Rs 1 lakh crore assistance for all the states, but it comes with conditions after conditions after conditions. The states cannot utilise it. She has said 'I will work for them because I believe in federalism', but the anti-federalism has been exposed in the fine print. There are lots of conditions to avail of this fund. Where will this money go?” he asked. “Regarding FRBM, the Centre wants states to introduce reforms in power and other sectors. Can any state government do that?”

The allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which provides jobs to the rural unemployed and was a flagship project introduced by the UPA government under Manmohan Singh, Mitra noted, has been reduced.

“The allocation under MGNREGA was previously at Rs 98,000crore. In this budget it has been brought down to Rs 78,000 crore. This was not mentioned in the budget, we got it from the fine print. When unemployment is rising, the one scheme that guaranteed work to the rural poor is being weakened. Tax rate has not been changed. Have to go through the fine print to see if they have made any hikes,” he said.

Mitra said while the government spoke about providing tap water to all rural households, of which only 17 per cent have been covered thus far, did not mention the funds allocated for the same.