Several opposition parties criticized the new budget presented by Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday. Many were expecting the budget to be in favour of public as this will be the last budget before the general elections of next year, but it was not upto the expectations of many.
However BJP praised the budget and PM Modi said that this budget is 'development friendly.'
The former finance minister tweeted that fiscal deficit limit of 3.2% in 2017-18 had been breached and was now estimated at 3.5%.
"For 2018-19 also against 3%, he (Jaitley) has fixed fiscal deficit at 3.3%," Chidambaram said, adding the proposals should have been "bold and radical".
"It is a defeatist budget. I think they have thrown in the towel. It is a budget of a government which has conceded that it has failed to address key issues in the economy... Unfortunately, the budget proposals are a big letdown," Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi.