Even as BJP allies like Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar claimed that the Budget is "progressive" and "futuristic", the Opposition leaders lamented that the government turned its head against the poor and the middle-class while not allocating enough funds for employment generation schemes.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Opposition on Saturday described the Narendra Modi government's Budget as a "band-aid for bullet wounds", an exercise aimed at "wooing" the tax paying middle-class and the Bihar electorate and a "big letdown" while claiming that it has been reduced to a "Bihar budget" and that much is being "made of the claim" of helping the middle classes.
Even as BJP allies like Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar claimed that the Budget is "progressive" and "futuristic", the Opposition leaders lamented that the government turned its head against the poor and the middle-class while not allocating enough funds for employment generation schemes.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi slammed the Union Budget as a "band-aid for bullet wounds" and said "amid global uncertainty, solving our economic crisis demanded a paradigm. He said the Budget was designed to "benefit only the country's rich" while providing little relief to common citizens.
In its post on 'X', Congress said the Budget did not have a cure to "illnesses" of stagnant real wages, lack of buoyancy in mass consumption, sluggish rates of private investment, and a complicated GST system.
Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the Budget was an attempt to "dupe" people and it was "seeking to be pious after committing a number of sins".
The Modi government has collected Rs 54.18 lakh crore of income tax from the middle class in the past ten years and now the exemption is being given to those earning up to Rs 12 lakh, he said adding that the Finance Minister's own calculation is that there would be a saving of Rs 80,000 per year, which was only Rs 6,666 per month. The Modi government is bent on garnering false praises, he added.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the take away from the budget is that the BJP is wooing the tax paying middle class and the Bihar electorate.
"She is not willing to break free as we did in 1991 and 2004. She is not willing to de-regulate. She is not willing to get out of the way of the people, especially the entrepreneurs and the MSMEs and the start-ups. It is the bureaucracy that will be happy with this Budget. The strangle- hold of government on the activities of the people is getting tighter," he added
AIADMK, a former BJP ally, called it a "Bihar Budget" while DMK's Dayanidhi Maran said it was a "big letdown", especially for the middle class. The minister claims she is giving tax exemption up to Rs 12 lakh but the very next line was that there is a 10 per cent for Rs 8 to Rs 10 lakh income. "Since elections in Bihar are coming up, there were a lot of announcements for Bihar, again fooling the state's people," he added.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement, "Much is being made of the claim of “helping the middle classes” by raising the tax exemption limit to Rs 12 lakh. The quantum of benefit from these changes in personal income taxes accruing to the middle class actually will be small compared to the benefits accruing to the really wealthy class of Indians -- the less than 1% of India’s population."
Senior RJD leader Tejashwi claimed that the Centre was indulging in "rhetoric" while Trinamool Congress' Abhishek Banerjee said the NDA government has once again laid bare its "utter disregard for the people with a budget that reeks of political opportunism, not welfarism".
Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav said the budget figures meant nothing when the government was unable to provide an accurate number of the people who had died in the Maha Kumbh stampede.
CPI General Secretary D Raja said the budget neglects the challenges faced by the Indian economy. "Rising unemployment, inflation, increasing inequality and regional disparities are some of the major issues faced by the Indian people but the budget fails to address them. Already the economy is in a bad shape and the value of the Rupee has fallen to unprecedented low level. Foreign debt is increasing," he said.
Union Budget 2025 | Nirmala Sitharaman, as Finance Minister, presented her record 8th Union Budget this time. While inflation has burnt a hole in the pockets of 'aam janata', the Modi govt gave income tax relief for those making up to Rs 12 lakh per year in salaried income. Track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analysis only on Deccan Herald. Also follow us on WhatsApp, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.