new delhi finance minister nirmala sitharaman on friday hit out at former fm p chidambarams criticism of the budget by countering his calculations while maintaining that the numbers given by the government were realistic and achievableshe also accused chidambaram of leaving behind unpaid subsidy bills besides pointing to the concerns raised over the use of participatory notes by foreign portfolio investors and the voluntary disclosure of income scheme launched during his first term in north block in the late 90swhile responding to the debate on the budget in rajya sabha sitharaman spent close to 45 minutes rebutting chidambarams claims made on thursday she began by thanking the former fm but then responded by pointing to several flaws in the numbers that he had mentioned in the upper housetowards the end she hit out hard at chidambaram starting with his comment that a 5 trillion economy was possible through compounding and even a moneylender knew it i am tempted to ask indeed if money doubles the economy doubles anyway just by the moneylenders business he can keep his khata accounts keeper will tell you that dont bother sit quiet economy will double in every few years is that why during upas rule no attention was given to the economy but scandals were going on the minister askedsitharaman said she would love to learn from every former finance minister and highlighted that some shortcomings during chidambarams time were handled by this government she flagged high inflation the comptroller and auditor generals comments on the vdis scheme rs 14 lakh crore of unpaid oil subsidy by the upa and the misuse of participatory notes a derivative instrument used by overseas investors as areas of concerns during the congressmans tenurechidambaram had questioned the budget arithmetic starting with the projected increase in direct taxes sitharaman retorted on friday by saying the congress veteran had not included securities transaction tax stt and corporation tax in the calculations and compared it with the standalone income tax number so it is not comparing like with like had he included stt the growth rate would have been 202 which is achievable considering our past record and also imposition of higher surcharge on income tax on highincome individuals she said during her over 100minute replysimilarly she countered chidambaram on customs duty excise and gst where he had pointed to a 45 rise in collections gst was brought with cooperation across the country by state governments by the opposition here although their prominent leaders keep calling it gabbar singh tax even today so let us not forget that gabbar singh tax as you say and you supported gabbar singh tax i am astonished now they want to take credit for it and they now accuse me for not giving credit the fm said adding that the growth was estimated at 14sitharaman then slammed the congressmans comments that the budget had not initiated structural reforms and it was his party that had undertaken most of these major policy changes while listing gst