Budget has good intentions, lacks roadmap: Manmohan

Former PM Manmohan Singh, an eminent economist, Saturday criticised the union budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying it has good intentions but no adequate roadmap. Speaking to NDTV news channel, Manmohan Singh, who was prime minister of the Congress-led UPA government for 10 years, said the NDA government has not been able to capitalise on the advantages, like low crude prices and of other commodities. He also slammed the figure of Rs.15,000 crore net tax revenue as too low. Manmohan Singh, who was architect of the 1991 economic liberalisation of India, told the news channel: “Mr. Jaitley is a very lucky finance minister. He has inherited an economy which is in reasonably good shape... inflation is under control, not because of anything we have done, but because the international prices of petroleum and other commodities have gone down.