New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Terming the Union Budget "disappointing", Congress leader Rajeev Gowda on Sunday said it is "lacking in ideas and empathy".

Gowda, a former MP and the chairman of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Research Department, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's speech reflected the BJP-led government's approach of focussing on rhetoric instead of actual reforms.

"It is a deeply-disappointing Budget, especially at this crucial juncture in the global economy. What it revealed today is a government that has run out of ideas and empathy," he told PTI.

"Unfortunately, if you look at the finance minister's speech, she came up with a new formulation -- three kartavyas -- but none of them are achieved with this Budget. The welfare schemes are continuously being dismantled," Gowda said, noting that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) itself was abolished.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre is prone to making announcements but does not generate enough revenues. "That has been the pattern over the last few years," the Congress leader added.

Dismissing the "reform express" statement of the finance minister, he said coming up with a flawed Goods and Services Tax (GST) and then rationalising rates is not reform but "correction of mistakes".

On how many marks he would give the Budget, Gowda said, "Just about the pass mark -- 40 per cent. Actually, I should not even give it the pass mark." "The Budget is lacking in ideas and lacking in empathy," he said.

Ahead of the release of the Economic Survey and the presentation of the Union Budget, the opposition party's research department had released a report on the state of the economy and said it was important to lay bare "facts" before people as the government would roll out its "propaganda" through the president's address to both Houses of Parliament, the Economic Survey and the Union Budget in the next few days.

Gowda had released the party's flagship annual report, titled "Inequality on the rise, Welfare in Retreat --“ Real State of the Economy 2026". PTI ASK RC

Union Budget criticised as lacking ideas and empathy, with claims of welfare dismantling and weak revenue mobilisation. The Union Budget is criticised for prioritising rhetoric over substantive reform, lacking ideas and empathy, and failing to generate sufficient revenues to sustain welfare programmes; it alleges the dismantling of MGNREGA and describes GST rate rationalisation as correction rather than genuine reform, while the opposition released a report asserting rising inequality and retreating welfare ahead of official government statements.