New Delhi: Calling on the government to take urgent steps to enforce financial discipline, Opposition members on March 12 criticised the Union Budget for not making any provision to take care of exigencies in the event of a war in Iraq.

Warning that tax-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio was not increasing and anticipated investment flow was not forthcoming, the members, participating in the resumed discussion on the Budget in Rajya Sabha, said increasing fiscal deficit would make it impossible to achieve the targeted 8 per cent GDP growth by the end of 10th Five Year Plan.

Prominent Opposition leaders Pranab Mukherjee (Congress) and Nilotpal Basu (Communist Party of India - Marxist) also had a dig at the government saying the announcements and then the rollbacks were making a mockery of intentions of Treasury Benches.

Mukherjee asked the government to revive former Finance Minister P Chidambaram's proposal for a broad-based all-party dialogue on enforcing financial discipline particularly on the vexed issue of subsidies.

He said for a credible quantum jump in GDP, the country needed to have investment growth at 32 per cent and wondered how the government proposed to go about it as its fund collection from disinvestments were falling below target year after year.

Basu warned that the oil import bill would escalate with the skyrocketing of crude oil prices fanning inflation in the country.

PTI