Budget 2019 was not election-oriented; measures announced for farm sector govt's duty, not doles, says Piyush Goyal

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the measures announced in the Interim Budget 2019 were not taken keeping in mind the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

“The Budget was not election-oriented, there were 100 things on the table…Issues of need and urgency could not wait,” Goyal said at a CII event.

To address the distress in the farm sector, the government in the Budget announced to provide Rs 6,000 per year to farmers in three instalments under a scheme to be fully funded by the Central government [caption id=“attachment_3735201” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of union finance minister Piyush Goyal. Image courtesy: PIB[/caption] Defending the move, Goyal said the support for small farmers announced in the Budget were not a dole but was the government’s duty towards them. Goyal said: “The farmer support was an outcome of taxes garnered and in that journey there has been a huge role of small farmers. We thought it was a good gesture for farmers and this is not a favour but a duty.” The finance minister said Gujarat and Maharashtra are the two states to furnish details of the farmers who would be benefited by the proposed scheme. A day after the RBI made it clear that it is not having a relook at a contentious circular about recognising of bad assets, Goyal said: Law cannot be a blind, wherein in 90 days artithmetically it becomes an NPA (non-performing asset). We will also discuss this and we hope to resolve it quickly." Goyal had presented the Budget in the Lok Sabha on 1 February. (With inputs from agencies)