The Treasury and Opposition benches sparred on Monday in the Lok Sabha over the Union Budget with the opposition members saying it offered a mere “sugar rush” in tax relief without any long-term benefits, while the ruling side defended it as “booster shot” for the economy.
Participating in the debate on the Union Budget in the Lower House, opposition members expressed concern on issues like the depreciating rupee value, rising government debt and farmers’ plight. They said that the budget was “election-centric” and ignored the interests of a vast majority of the population.
DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran said preference has been given to the corporates and not the common man. He claimed that prices of essential commodities were going up which was hurting the interests of the poor and the middle classes. The DMK leader also accused the Modi government of coming out with budgets in successive years that have focused on poll-bound states keeping in mind political gains. Taking a swipe at the finance minister, he said whenever the opposition flags the falling value of the rupee, Nirmala Sitharaman always responds by saying the rupee is not getting weaker but the USD is emerging stronger.
Referring to the outcome of the Delhi Assembly polls, he said the tax benefit proposed in the Union Budget for the middle class helped the BJP. But, Maran said, that less than three crore people will actually benefit in the country. He said the tax relief for the middle class was like an “economic sugar rush” which was untenable in the long run. Dubbing the budgetary provision as “unjust”, he said it does not take care of the interests of people.
The debate on the Union Budget began on Friday.
Congress MP Manish Tewari claimed that in the past one decade, government debts have soared which has created problems for future generations.
He described the debt on the government as “inter-generational debt”.