Budget LIVE | Aim is to widen tax net either directly or indirectly: Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has dismissed the Opposition’s criticism that the Budget has accorded special treatment to states run by supporting parties, saying that those whose alliance got less than 230 seats have no right to question it as the Centre has provided funds to all states.

On the issue of Rs 60,000 crore projects announced for Bihar and pledge to get multilateral assistance for the state and Andhra Pradesh, she said, Rs 1.5 lakh crore assistance has been promised for all states in the budget.

“We get proposals for all states and try to finance their projects following due process,” she said.

Asked whether West Bengal is not mentioned in the Budget, she said, those who are claiming this, should read the speech carefully as the name features in paragraph giving details of Purvodaya scheme.

“If the name of the state is not mentioned in the Budget speech that does not mean that it is not covered,” she said.

“States in the eastern part of the country are rich in endowments and have strong cultural traditions. We will formulate a plan, Purvodaya, for the all-round development of the eastern region of the country covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh,” she said in her Budget speech.

This will cover human resource development, infrastructure, and generation of economic opportunities to make the region an engine to attain Viksit Bharat.

The AAP, Congress, and SAD have expressed “disappointment” with the Budget saying it had failed to address the concerns of Punjab.

Slamming the BJP-led NDA government for not considering any of its demands, including a package for crop diversification, Punjab Finance Minister and AAP leader Harpal Singh Cheema said the Budget “completely disappointed” the state.

Cheema further accused the Centre of meting out step-motherly treatment to the border state. “The Centre meted out step-motherly treatment to the people of Punjab and farmers. The BJP-led government deceived the people of Punjab,” he said.

However, the BJP leaders hailed the Budget, calling it “development-oriented”.

“The farmers have been demanding a legal guarantee of a minimum support price (MSP) on 23 crops. Despite a promise by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union government did not utter a single word on MSP. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs 1.52 lakh crore for agriculture and allied sectors in the entire country, which is not enough to bring the agriculture sector out of the deepening crisis. Punjab's agriculture sector needs a special bailout package,” said Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa.

The leader of opposition said no relief was given to the industry and business community of Punjab, which have been forced to migrate to other states. On the other hand, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have got the “most priority” in the Budget, he added.

Former Union minister and Congress leader Kamal Nath on Tuesday termed the Union Budget as “vision-less” which is presented by a “direction-less” Centre.

He claimed the Budget has failed to provide relief to common people from inflation as well as farmers and youngsters, while only misleading announcements are made on employment schemes and Income Tax exemptions.

“This is a vision-less budget of a directionless government. Young people in the country are constantly struggling for permanent jobs amid a high level of unemployment which has touched the sky. However, the Centre has mentioned nothing about providing permanent jobs (in the Budget). The finance minister didn’t commit to filling vacant posts in the Union government," Nath said.

The government has not taken any positive initiative in the Budget regarding farmers which is the “saddest thing”, the former MP chief minister said.

In a jibe at the Centre, Nath said farmers’ income was supposed to double in 2022 but the annadata (agriculturists) was neglected in 2024.

Himachal Pradesh has been completely ignored and got nothing in the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has said.

The discrimination is clearly visible in the budget as the NDA allies in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have been rewarded, but Himachal’s legitimate claim for a special package for last year’s monsoon disaster finds no mention in the budget, he said while talking to the media persons here, Sukhu said in a statement.

“The cessation of GST compensation has put Himachal Pradesh in a precarious financial position, resulting in an annual loss the state can't afford. A special financial package was urgently needed in the analogy of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh to mitigate this loss and support our state's fiscal stability,” the chief minister said.

Terming the Budget as anti-poor, inequitable and not futuristic, Sukhu said it is a total opportunistic budget and fails to address the critical issues of unemployment, rising prices, and growing inequality.

Sukhu highlighted several key areas of concern and called for immediate revisions to address the needs of the wider population and said that the Centre had again disappointed Himachal Pradesh by ignoring its long pending demands and the aspirations of the people.

He said the Himachal government had requested the Centre to release Rs. 9,042 crore as financial assistance following a post-disaster assessment carried out by a central team. It was expected that Himachal too, would be given direct assistance on the pattern of Assam, Sikkim and Uttarakhand.

Although an announcement has been made for assistance to cope with the losses due to the monsoon last year, there is no mention of how much aid we would get, he said.

Himachal which suffered major losses due to floods last year, would be assisted with multilateral development assistance, the finance minister said in her Budget speech.

Though the increase in the allocation for interest-free loans to states to Rs. 1.5 lakh crore from the existing allocation of Rs. 1.3 Lakh crore is a welcome measure, though the tough conditions attached to it do not favour small states like Himachal Pradesh due to cost disabilities.

Sukhu said the state had repeatedly raised its demands for financial assistance for road, air and rail connectivity, the industrial sector and various tourism schemes. It was unfortunate that none of them had been given any attention. The budget fails to address the issue of expansion of the rail network.

Sukhu said the state had urged to release a sum of Rs. 3,500 crore under capital investment for Kangra airport which was not only important from a tourism point of view but also for the defence of the nation. Despite strong recommendations, a special grant has also been denied.

The budget offers no measures to reduce the import duty on apples, which would have provided much-needed relief to the apple growers, he added.

Left parties on Tuesday said the Union Budget is contractionary, does not address issues like inflation and unemployment and is trying to “mask the failures” of the government.

Reacting to Modi 3.0 government’s first budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the CPI(M) noted that there was no proposal of wealth or inheritance tax or any relief on the indirect tax burden on people and alleged that it will further impoverish the poor while the affluent will become richer.

“The budget presented today is a contractionary budget. What the people required on the contrary is an expansionary budget.

“We have one of the highest rates of unemployment, highest rates of food inflation, there is a growing level of restlessness and poverty, and unless the economy expands, none of these issues have been addressed,” CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said in a video statement released by the party.

The net result of this entire thing is this budget “fails to address either inflation, unemployment, inequalities, and at the same time the slowing down of private investments in our country because the market is depressed”, he said.

In a statement, the Politburo of the CPI(M) said the budget figures show that the revenue earnings of the government increased by 14.5 per cent while the expenditures grew only by 5.94 per cent.

“Instead of using these revenues for expanding economic activity, it has been used to reduce the fiscal deficit, to appease International Finance Capital from 5.8 per cent to 4.9 per cent of the GDP,” the CPI(M) said.

“Overall, this budget is aimed at further enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor. It refused to consider any proposal of wealth or inheritance tax on the super-rich of India, neither any relief on the indirect tax burden on people,” the CPI(M) said.

They said the GDP calculations projected in the budget are yet another exercise in “data fudging”.

“Nominal GDP growth is projected at 10.5 per cent. Real GDP projected to grow 6.5 to 7 per cent is calculated by deflating the nominal growth by the 'core' inflation rate of 3 per cent which excludes the high food inflation rate of 9.4 per cent, thus exaggerating real GDP growth,” CPI(M) said.

It also said fertilizer subsidy being cut by Rs. 24,894 core and food subsidy by Rs. 7,082 crore, expenditures on education, health and rural development as a percentage of GDP remain more or less unchanged, and flagship rural employment scheme MGNREGS continues to be neglected further.

“Budgetary allocation is Rs. 86,000 crores which was less than what was spent in FY'23. However, Rs. 41,500 crores are already spent in the first four months of this Financial Year, leaving a mere Rs. 44,500 crores for the remaining eight months.

“Clearly, this will be grossly inadequate to tackle the deep unemployment crisis in rural India,” the CPI(M) said.

It said the budget resorted to “gimmickry” in the name of addressing unemployment with the new Employment Linked Incentive scheme.

“The Politburo of the CPI(M) calls upon all party units to protest against the failure of the budget to address the pressing issues of the people and the economy,” they added.

Communist Party of India General Secretary D Raja slammed the budget as a “deceitful exercise in hiding failures” of the last 10 years of BJP rule.

“BJP’s pro-corporate policymaking and torturous decisions have resulted in widespread miseries for the common people and the government is trying to shamelessly mask its failures on external developments in a period where crude oil prices have remained favourable than before,” Raja said on X.

He said the budget shows the BJP is uncertain of the survival of the NDA government, and is trying to placate allies, adding that while his party has no issues with Bihar or Andhra Pradesh getting allocations, states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Odisha have been ignored.

States should be equal in the eyes of the Union with objective criteria for allocation of funds, the way it was with the Planning Commission, he said.

Raja alleged that the budget has made it clear that the government only “makes noise” on the issues of youths, women, the poor and farmers while furthering corporate interest exclusively.

The ruling BJP in Rajasthan on Tuesday welcomed the Budget, calling it progressive and inclusive, while the Opposition Congress accused the Centre of ignoring the state.

“This is a progressive Budget and the vision of 2047 is reflected in it. Innovative experiments have been done for the youth like providing internships in big companies. This is a budget made with inclusiveness and foresight for infrastructure, agriculture, youth and women,” senior BJP leader and former state president Satish Poonia said.

Congress state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra, however, said the Budget was a disappointment for Rajasthan.

He also alleged that the Centre ignored Rajasthan in the Union Budget 2024-25 as a revenge for losing 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Stating that the Union Budget has completely ignored Telangana, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday alleged that the NDA government at the Centre was not just discriminating against the state but exhibited “bias”.

Reddy, who came down heavily on the NDA government, said it sought to please NDA partners TDP and JD(U). NDA means “Naidu-Nitish Dependent Alliance”, he said, addressing a press conference to respond on the budget presented in Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The CM also demanded that Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy, who is the state BJP president, quit his post over the “injustice” done to the state.

The Centre’s “discrimination” of Telangana would be debated in the legislative assembly on Wednesday and a resolution would be passed on the issue, he said.