Chandigarh: Alleging, "hidden agenda" in the Union Budget presented by his successor P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today (Jul 10, 2004) said that people would have to suffer its negative effects shortly.

"The UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government has tried to create an impression that they have done many new things keeping larger interest of the masses in mind, but actually the Budget betrays and deceives people and its negative effect on common masses will be known over the days to come," he told reporters said.

Asked to explain what he called "hidden agenda", Sinha said what Chidambaram said in Parliament while delivering the Budget speech was "only the tip of the iceberg".

"There is a larger hidden agenda in this Budget, which ordinary people are not aware. An aura has been created around things like the increase in the income tax limit, which gives an impression that people earning upto Rs one lakh will not be taxed, which is not the case as the exemption limit has not been extended. An essential raw material like steel will become costlier and this will have cascading effect on the economy," he alleged.

Sinha said the increase in revenue receipts had been shown in advance at 25 per cent on the basis of projections of the whole year.

He said another impression which had been tried to be created by the UPA Government was that "the previous NDA Government had ignored the agricultural and rural sectors and the present regime has focused mainly on these."

"They say they have kept Rs 14,000 crore equity support for the PSUs and Rs 2,100 crore loan support to them while in the previous Budget presented by the NDA, the respective figures were Rs 13,000 crore and Rs 2,400 crore," Sinha said.

He said it was for the first time that tax on equity market had evoked strong reaction from the stock market.

He said the achievement of the NDA Government during its six-year rule was to keep inflation rate under check. "We fear this will increase now, which will not be a healthy sign for Indian economy."

Sinha, who was here as part of BJP's (Bharatiya Janata Party) nation-wide "Rashtriya Suraksha, Swabhiman and Loktantra Bachao" week, said that even the present Congress-led regime at the Centre had appreciated the good work done on the economic front by the NDA regime, which is why the Finance Minister has himself said that many ongoing programmes (of the previous Government) would continue.