lauding the Union Budget, the BJP and the Government on Wednesday described it as “historic” and “poor and women-friendly” and one that fulfills Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise made in 2014 that he would bring transparency in politics. Both the Central ministers and BJP leaders said the Budget has the imprints of Modi’s ideas.
BJP president Amit Shah said limiting cash donation to `2,000 is a way forward towards bringing transparency in politics that would cut down corruption and black money. “This budget is women, poor-friendly budget; Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fulfilled his promise made in 2014 to bring in transparency in politics”, said Shah soon after the presentation of the budget.
Terming the Union Budget as “revolutionary”, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said it would not only wipe out black money and corruption but also usher in transparency in political parties and spur country’s economic growth.
The senior BJP leader and Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister said it was “pro-farmers” and “pro-poor” and would push the agriculture growth rate by at least 2 per cent.
He also said the infrastructure space has been a major beneficiary of the budget and accordingly the government is giving top-most priority to sectors like highways, waterways and multi-modal hubs.
“The black economy will be wiped out as there would be no transactions in cash over Rs 3 lakh. This provision will curb illegal transactions and would result in huge revenue. Honest people will thrive, there will be boost to small scale industries and service class will benefit,” the Minister said.
Gadkari said, “Revolutionary changes will not only occur in industry, agriculture but political parties will also be transparent as there were three blackspots — cash, caste and criminals. People used to fight elections on the basis of money power. Now honest will come in politics and there will be transparency in political parties.”
He said, “Agriculture has been given a major thrust with a huge Rs 1 lakh crore hike in the credit target for the next fiscal to Rs 10 lakh crore and is bound to push agriculture growth rate by at least 2 per cent.”
Terming as unprecedented the provision of Rs 1.31 lakh crore for railways’ capital expenditure, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said the budget is growth oriented. Praising Prime Ministerfor the “bold step”, Prabhu said the budget has the “imprint” of Prime Minister’s ideas.
Prabhu said a new era has begun by not only adhering to fiscal prudence but also bringing social equity at the same time, Prabhu said after the presentation of the General Budget by Jaitley.
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, “The budget is very inspiring and bold steps have been announced. Particularly the political funding has been made transparent.
“People will be happy. Some political parties will become poor. That is why our opponents are saying the budget is anti-poor.”.
He said that the highlight of this budget is that one cannot contribute in cash more than Rs 2000 to a political party and honest people who want to donate to honest parties, political bonds have been allowed which he termed as a “big reform”.
Naidu said that highest allocation in the history of the country has been given to MNREGA and honest taxpayers have been rewarded. He said that with more people coming under tax net, the tax rates are coming down.
Union Minister Ananth Kumar described the budget as, “a transformative one. It’s a step towards cleaning the whole political system, we welcome it”.
Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal maintained the “Budget 2017 recognised benefits of DeMonetisation and passed it on to people of India, it has given benefits to every section”. Another central minister Kiren Rijiju said that the budget is focused on rural infrastructure, housing and roads.