Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday tore into the opposition's attack on his handling of the economy during the debate in Rajya Sabha on the Union Budget 2018-19.

Launching a point-by-point rebuttal of Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram's speech today, Jaitley said, "I do believe that some people can make very good comment at us because they write and speak with right logic but I am not so sure whether they make the best administrators."

Reeling out a slew of comparative data, Jaitley charged Chidambaram with being a 'know-all, living under false illusions'.

Chidambaram in an article had said that the "current Chief Economic Advisor was a good doctor and the government, a bad patient".

Jaitley said, "During the 10-year UPA rule the economy was in the hands of a 'terrible doctor' who pushed it to being in the fragile five economies in the world. Indian economy under the BJP rule since 2014 has covered the journey from policy paralysis to structural reforms. For those ten years, 2004-2014, you had a terrible doctor. And when you have a terrible doctor, even the healthiest of the patients are likely to disappear."

While justifying the government's decision to trim down corporate tax to 25 per cent for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) with a Rs 250 crore turnover, he mocked Chidambaram and said, "In some cases, where you stand depends on where you sit."

He said that during his speech attacking the Union Budget, Chidambaram had criticised the move to reduce corporate tax. Jaitley said that the statement indicated that the ex-finance minister had switched his stand on the issue after moving from treasury to opposition benches.

"Who had mooted the idea for the first time? It was he who had introduced a Direct Tax Code in which there was a proposal to reduce corporate tax to 25 per cent so that there could be an increase in re-investment of surplus and creation of more jobs," Jaitley said.

WHAT JAITLEY SAID

Some people can make very good comment at us because they write and speak with right logic but not sure if they make best administrators.

“In some cases, where you stand depends on where you sit,” said Jaitley alluding that P Chidambaram had changed his stand in the past.

“Between 2004-2014 you had a terrible doctor. And when you have a terrible doctor, even healthiest patients are likely to disappear,” Jaitley.

Jaitley added that after the budgetary announcement, only 7,000 companies in India will remain uncovered by the 25 per cent corporate tax. "If these companies are included in the 25 per cent corporate tax bracket, the loss revenue of Rs 45,000-50,000 crore and the Budget cannot absorb the loss."

Pushed by Communist Party of India's (Marxist) Tapan Sen to clarify if the government was creating a new standard for MSME by offering lower corporate tax to companies below Rs 250 crore turnover, Jaitley announced that the government was planning to bring in a legislation to redefine the criteria for MSME.

If the NDA government faced a united opposition on a slowing GDP, rising inflation, fiscal deficit and Current Account Deficit (CAD), Jaitley presented a long series of comparative data to counter the charges in his reply on the Budget 2018-19 in Rajya Sabha. Jaitley said that the GDP growth under the UPA government in 2012-13 was 5.3 per cent while the lowest growth rate in NDA years was 6.3 per cent.

He added that there was a slide in one quarter last fiscal after the launch of GST because businesses were de-stocking and manufacturing came down and hence, growth slid to 5.7 per cent.

Comparing the CAD during the UPA rule he said, "The CAD during UPA rule at 6.8 per cent broke the 'world record' while in the last two fiscals under the UPA rule, it was 4.2 per cent and 4.8 per cent. While under NDA, it has ranged between half per cent and one and half per cent."

Jaitley said, "We can throw up questions in the air and live under the illusions of all sorts of know-alls. But the fact is, our analysis can be incorrect. But data cannot speak any alternate language."

Jaitley countered the opposition's charge that the government was breaching the fiscal deficit targets and said, "There was not only a problem of rising fiscal deficit during the UPA rule but also the quality of the fiscal deficit during the UPA period was poor. In the last three years of the UPA rule, fiscal was 5.9 per cent, 4.9 per cent and 4.5 per cent while under the BJP rule, fiscal deficit was 4.1 per cent in first year, 3.9 per cent in second and 3.5 per cent in third."

For those ten years 2004-2014 you had a terrible doctor. And when you have a terrible doctor, even the healthiest of the patients are likely to disappear. - Arun Jaitley

He clarified that this fiscal, the government was to keep fiscal deficit at 3.2 per cent. But because the GST revenue dropped, the current fiscal will be 'short by one month'. Attacking the UPA, Jaitley said, "After maintaining fiscal deficit as high as 5.9 per cent in 2011-12, 4.9 per cent in 2012-13 and 4.5 per cent in 2013-14 and you are today lecturing us as to why you did not bring it down to 3.2 per cent."

He added, "During the UPA rule, there was high fiscal deficit. Then, there were cuts in developmental expenditure. This meant that the quality of deficit was poor."

Defending the NDA government's track record on keeping inflation under check, Jaitley said that inflation is down from a double-digit under the UPA rule to 3.6 per cent this year. While under the UPA, the inflation recorded were 9.4 per cent, 10.4 per cent and 10 per cent in 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 respectively."

Attacking the UPA, Jaitley said that there was no consistency in the opposition's stand on economic policies. If PM Modi's move to demonetise Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes to curb black money faced jibes from the opposition, Jaitley said, "The campaign against black money has helped. We had hoped for a 14-15 per cent increase in income tax this fiscal. The data received on January 31 shows that it had grown by 19.7 per cent. That is due to measures like GST and note ban."

"We lost one quarter GDP because of GST, because people were destocking (and) manufacturing came down and it became 5.7 per cent. So for one quarter it was 5.7 per cent. So there was so much of hoopla for one quarter" as compared to 5.3 to 6.3 per cent for full years under UPA, he said.

Attacking the Congress, Jaitley said that there was no consistency in the party's stand on economic policy.

We are being told that the doctor who diagnosed was a very good one but you are a bad patient. Then let us not be under the impression that these are data anybody is likely to forget. And just appreciate this journey. That was a journey from policy paralysis to structural reforms that we have covered. - Arun Jaitley

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