Left parties came down heavily on the Budget on Wednesday, dubbing it as high on rhetoric and low on steps to tame inflation and the agrarian crisis, and hinted at moving amendments to the Finance Bill if the United Progressive Alliance government failed to take corrective measures.

The government has failed to deliver resources to warrant its rhetoric that the Budget serves the cause of the crisis- ridden peasantry, the working people and the poor, CPI-M said in a scathing criticism, bringing the Congress-led coalition under renewed pressure.

"We will move amendments to the Budget. We want correctives to be carried out by the government," CPI-M Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said. He, however, did not specify in what manner they would move the amendments.

The party said Finance Minister P Chidambaram failed to seriously address the problems of unemployment and inflation and did not exploit the many opportunities for additional resource mobilisation, especially by taxing the rich whose income shares have increased.

"In the context of the inflationary crisis affecting the economy, Budget 2007-08 comes as a disappoitment...He has kept expenditure increases under a tight leash while restructuring it in a way that goes against the interest of the working people and the state governments," the Polit Bureau said.

There was no word in the Budget on granting price support to farmers to prevent suicides, on employment generation and on implementation of 'pro-people' commitments in the Common Minimum Programme, Yechury said.

"There are some references to the Left wish-list here and there, but these are not matched by adequate allocations," he added.

Bengal Left hates it: According to another report from Kolkata, the West Bengal government said the 2007-08 Budget had failed to address the two basic problems of unemployment and inflation now affliciting the majority of common people.

"We don't find any special reason to be enthused with this year's Union Budget", state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said. Apart from routine constitutionally mandatory devolution of state's share of central taxes, the states, particularly West Bengal, had not received any significant dispensation", he noted.

In curbing inflation, Dasgupta said, the Centre should not only self-critically examine its previous decision of allowing corporate houses, including foreign direct investment in retail trade (with monopolistic price jacking inflation), but also come out with complete course of action in closely interacting with the state for extending overall public distribution system in essential commodities.