The Union Budget for the Financial Year 2022-23 was released on February 1 with an emphasis on infrastructure spending, tax on cryptocurrency, battery swapping policy to encourage the use Electronic Vehicles and expansion of National Highways among other issues.
The discussions regarding Budget-2022 were led in the Parliament on Monday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Despite Sitharaman’s and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims that the budget is “people friendly and progressive”, various members of the opposition have raised concerns. The opposition argues that the current budget is exclusionary and reductionist as it sidelines many key socio-economic issues prevalent in the country.
Opposition leaders and their reactions:
To begin with, Trinamool Congress President and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee felt that the budget offers no benefits the common people, she put out a tweet labelling it as a zero budget.
“BUDGET HAS ZERO FOR COMMON PEOPLE, WHO ARE GETTING CRUSHED BY UNEMPLOYMENT & INFLATION. GOVT IS LOST IN BIG WORDS SIGNIFYING NOTHING – A PEGASUS SPIN BUDGET” read the tweet.
Expressing his view on the same, NDA ally and JDU member Upendra Kuswaha said it is disappointing that the union budget doesn’t provide any benefit to the state of the Bihar.
“We have a long standing demand for special status of Bihar and expecting that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would say something on it but unfortunately, she completely ignored it,” read a tweet from Kushwaha.
“The Union Budget has been beneficial for developed states but it has nothing for poor states like Bihar. Our state needs financial support from the Centre for its development,” he added.
Congress leader Rahul Gadhi termed the budget as a zero-sum game, “It has nothing in it for the salaried class youth and farmers” he tweeted.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor expressed concerns over the budget as he felt it paid no attention to subjects including Defence, Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) or any of the essential sectors.
“Extremely disappointing, a damp squib! There seems to be absolutely nothing in this Budget. It’s an astonishingly disappointing Budget. When you listen to the speech, no mention of MGNREGA, of Defence, of any other urgent priorities facing the public.” said Tharoor.
Expressing his view on the Union budget, Rajasthan chief minister, Ashok Gehlot said, “This budget will prove to be a budget to increase inflation, to fill the pockets of industrialists and to empty the pockets of common man, farmer and labourer.”
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