Budget Reactions: JMM says budget nothing but a magical web or words, Congress terms bogus

Ranchi: The ruling parties in Jharkhand have described the Union Budget 2023- 2024 presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the parliament as disappointing and bogus which had nothing to do with the welfare of the poor and middle class.

Senior JMM leader Supriyo Bhattacharya said that the budget is full of disappointment and is a web of beautiful words. He said that it is being claimed that relaxation has been provided income tax slab which is misleading as relaxation in the IT slab has been hiked from Rs 2,50,000 to Rs 3,00,000.

He said that in the present time, the monthly income of 80 percent of people in the country was less than Rs 25,000 per month which means the poor and the middle class will be further exploited. 

Bhattacharya said that on the issue of unemployment, no assurance has been given to the youth while in the name of the establishment of nursing colleges the corporate friends of the BJP will be given an advantage. He said that the farmers' worker's youth in small and medium-scale industries have also been shown fake dreams but ultimately this budget will increase price rise and inflation and bring new challenges to the people.

Jharkhand Congress president Rajesh Thakur said that previous budgets stood first in announcements and last in execution and the same fear is visible in the present budget and overall he termed it as a bogus one. He pointed out that in the previous budget, a target was set to build 80 lakh homes under PMAY but only 38 lakh homes have been built while against a target of construction of 12,000 kms of roads only 5300 kms of roads have been constructed. 

Thakur further said that an announcement was made to start 400 Vande Bharat Trains in the country out of which just 8 have been started while against the target of connecting 3.8 crore homes with Nal Jal Yojana, only 1.7 crore homes have been provided the necessary connections.

He said that there was a need to expand the ambit of Section 80 C of the Income Tax which would have been beneficial for the taxpayers. Further, he pointed out that despite the capital outlay of 10 lakh crore in the budget the picture of the economy cannot change unless the investment from the private sector increase.