Congress' Manish Tewari claims Budget leak, says pointers being 'circulated by govt sources'

New Delhi, Feb 01: Just hours before NDA government's final budget presentation, Congress leader Manish Tewari has alleged that a few points relating to the Union budget were being leaked to the media personnel.

Taking to Twitter, the former I&B minister posted a number of reports and said: "These pointers are being Circulated to Media people by Govt Sources . If all this or substantive amount of these proposals find reflection in the budget would it not tantamount to a BUDGET LEAK?"

The budget 2019 has been surrounded by Controversy. It was speculated that the budget presentation on 1 February will be just like a full-fledged one with sops and announcements to woo voters.

Main opposition party Congress had said it will strongly oppose both inside and outside Parliament the presentation of a "full budget" by the BJP-led NDA government as it has "no electoral legitimacy" and the step will go against set precedents and Parliamentary traditions.

The Ministry of Finance has clarified that February 1 would see only an interim budget being announced by interim finance minister Piyush Goyal.

Even the provisional business list of the Lok Sabha terms it as "Interim Budget 2019-2020", which is in line with tradition whereby the outgoing government takes the nod of Parliament to spend for four months through a Vote on Account until a new government assumes office.