Congress' Manish Tewari calls paperless Budget '21 'cheap theatre'; trashes India on Covid

Senior Congress leer Manish Tewari on Tuesday lashed out at Centre's decision of t printing copies of upcoming Union Budget and termed it "cheap atre." Sharing a media report on Twitter, former Union Minister asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman what "what will this tokenism achieve?"

'What will this tokenism achieve?'

"COVID-19 count stands at 10.5 million cases -11.57% of cases worldwide, social distancing is n-existent, mask-wearing is exception, t rm what will this tokenism achieve,"  Anandpur Sahib MP wrote.

Budget documents will t be printed this year following COVID-19 protocol and will inste be distributed electronically to Members of Parliament (MPs), news ncy PTI reported on Monday. This will be first time since presentation of independent India's first budget on vember 26, 1947, that documents containing income and expenditure statement of Union government along with finance bill, detailing new tax and or measures for new financial year, will t be physically printed.

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Govt t to print Budget documents

Due to COVID-19, it has been decided t to print documents related to Union Budget for fiscal beginning April (FY 2021-22), PTI sources said. All MPs will get soft copies of budget and Ecomic Survey that contains an account of state of ecomy.

printing of documents requires staff to be locked up in basement printing press of Finance Ministry couple of weeks ahe of presentation of Budget. printing all se years began with a 'Halwa' ceremony that marked staff going into basement press only to emerge after budget is presented. "This will be first time since independence that physical copies of Budget documents will t be shared with MPs to avoid risk of COVID-19 infection," sources said.

familiar sight of trucks loed with budget papers in Parliament on budget day and scanning of se by security guard will also be given a miss.  Union Budget for 2021-22, eighth Budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, is scheduled to be presented in Parliament on February 1, 2021. Sitharaman will be presenting her third full-time Budget.

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