Parliament Budget Session Day 9 LIVE: ‘Forgettable Budget by Finance Minister who forgot last year’s promises,’ says P. Chidambaram in Budget discussion

The debate on the Union budget is kicked off senior Congress leader P Chidambaram. He highlights that the Economic Survey is prepared by the Economics Division of the Finance Ministry, with a lot of people doing a lot of research and analysis, and wonders whether the government and its key ministers read the Economic Survey, which runs to over 700 pages, and has over 450 pages of narration. The most charitable view is that they do not care for the Chief Economic Advisor, and the uncharitable view is that while the CEA is bringing the government down to earth about what is happening in the country, the government and the ministers want to soar high and reach another planet, he says. 

There are a number of challenges listed in the survey, he says. The first is capital investment, he says, stating that gross fixed capital formation is stuck at 30% of GDP. The net FDI in 2024-25 has collapsed to less than 0.09%, he says. Private investment, even though companies are cash-rich, is stuck at 22% of the GDP. When neither the private or public sectors or foreign investors are investing, this government has cut capital expenditure, he says, noting that in the year ending 2025-26, it was cut by Rs. 1,44,376 crores. 

No reasons for this or other shortfalls were given by the Finance Minister, he says.