Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar on Wednesday hailed the Union Budget, which for the first time includes Railway Budget, for 2017-18, presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in Parliament.
The Chief Minister termed the budget 2017 as a big, bold and reformist measure and pro-common man and pro-farmer, which will give demand, economy and digitilisation, a decisive push.
Hailing the renewed commitment of the NDA Government to double the income of farmers in five years, Manohar lal said that allocation of `10 lakh crore for farm credit by banks, setting up of an irrigation fund by NABARD, `8000-crore Dairy Processing Infra Fund and expansion of the national agriculture market will give the farmers, agriculture and the allied sector, the much needed boost.
The budget gives salaried people big relief by reducing the tax from 10 per cent to five per cent on income between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh; housing a boost by vowing to complete one crore houses by 2019 and reducing the holding period for land and building to two from three years; and industry the space by reducing corporate tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent for companies with turn-over of `50 crore, the Chief Minister said.
Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu also hailed the Union Budget saying it will give digitalisation a push by disallowing transactions over `three lakh in cash and targeting 2,500 crore digital transactions across platforms like UPI.
Meanwhile, Kiran Choudhry, leader of Haryana Congress legislature Party, has branded the Union Budget for 2017-18 as one that lacks vision, purpose and direction and, like demonetisation, is a big let-down for the man in the street whose hopes have been dashed to the ground. It is anti-poor and anti-common man, she said. Choudhry said since the budget offers no hope to the man in the street and does little to give the sagging economy a push, it will breed discontent and cost the government dear in electoral terms.