Though the last year's budget has estimated an expenditure of Rs 4,000crores, the figure finally reached a whopping Rs 25,000 crores. There is amajor shortfall in the expenditure for critical areas such as agriculture,rural development and communications indicating distortions in the "qualityof spending", the former finance minister said.

"Staggering and significant amount has been wasted on the "useless" areas.Since the Government has projected an expenditure of Rs 35,000 crore for thecurrent year, the actual figure can be anybody's guess if the last year'sstatistics should be used as the benchmark," he added.

The budget has also could not widen the tax base without actually increasingthe tax rates. Heavy tax burden on the "wealthy class," will invariablyresult in dampening the spirit of enterprise. Taxrates should be allowed tobe stable for the next few years to promote growth, Chidambaram said.

"I strongly disapprove the surcharge on tax and tax on dividend payouts.These will definitely send bad signals. There are a number of ways to widenthe tax base without hiking the tax rates. Taxing the rural rich may be onesuch option beacause they still take shelter under the "agricultural income"route," he added.

There are not enough proposals to stimulate investment-led growth which onlyhas the potential to create more and more jobs, he said.

The expenditure budget on the public sector undertakings (PSUs) continue tobe Rs 2000 crore which only goes into the payment of wages. Returns fromsuch PSUs are negative, if the oil companies are removed from the list, hecautioned.

The function, organsied by the South Indian Education Society, was presidedover by Tata Sons director R Gopalakrishnan.