Former Union Finance Minister P.Chidambaram on Monday said the government should have reworked its expenditure pattern so that money flows into hands of the people early to improve demand.
Speaking here on the Union Budget 2020-21 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, he contended that only mass consumption would stabilise demand, and the Finance Minister should have ensured putting money in the hands of large number of people.
He said given the finance constraints, the government should have redrawn its expenditure pattern so that long gestation projects were deferred and bulk of the money should have been allocated to programmes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) or PM Kisan Yojana as the money would have gone to people”s hands in three months time to spur demand.