Jammu, July 5 -- The budget speech by Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman is one of the "most opaque ever" former finance minister P Chidambaram said, pointing out that it leaves out all crucial information regarding the government's expenditure, revenue, fiscal deficit, and even the allocation for the defence sector.
"For large number of people who are listening to the speech, they do not get this budget document. Officials get it, MPs get it, think tanks get it, i suppose you can buy a set of documents. But the lakhs and lakhs of people who are listening to the speech, you don't tell them what the government's total expenditure is, what the total revenue is, what the fiscal deficit is. What are you afraid of? Why are you keeping people in ...