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

Political vengeance against Kerala: CPI MP Binoy Viswam

Budget made not for people, but to save government: Sanjay Raut

Historic, visionary, inclusive budget: Uttarakhand CM

Budget shows desperate attempt by BJP to placate allies: D Raja

Govt response on unemployment, inflation too little: Chidambaram

The response of the government on unemployment is too little and will have only little impact on the grave unemployment situation. The claim that the schemes announced by the FM will benefit 290 lakh persons is highly exaggerated...Inflation is the other major challenge. WPI inflation is 3.4 per cent, CPI inflation is 5.1 per cent, and food inflation is 9.4 per cent...The Economic Survey dismissed the issue of inflation in a few short sentences. The FM dismissed it in 10 words in para 3 of her speech. We deplore the casual attitude of the government. And nothing in the budget speech gives us the confidence that the government will seriously tackle the issue of inflation: Chidambaram

Happy that FM adopted Congress manifesto: Chidambaram

I have already tweeted that I am happy that the finance minister had an opportunity to read the Congress’ manifesto after the Lok Sabha-2024 elections. She has virtually adopted the ideas underlying our proposals on the Employment-linked Incentive (ELI) scheme, the Apprenticeship Scheme with an allowance to the Apprentice, and the abolition of the Angel Tax. I wish she had adopted many more ideas from the Congress manifesto.

#WATCH | #UnionBudget2024 | Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) MP Chandra Shekhar Aazad says, "I had a lot of expectations from the budget regarding the welfare schemes for youth, farmers, women but there was nothing in it...What will happen after the internship?... Steps have been… pic.twitter.com/FCHhvH1qGE

— ANI (@ANI) July 23, 2024

Budget-2024 paves way for more prosperous, equitable India: Nadda

Nitish hails Union Budget, says it addressed state's concerns

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said the "special help" announced in the Union Budget addressed the state's concerns, which had previously led to demands for special category status.

Speaking to reporters at the Vidhan Sabha premises shortly after the Budget presentation Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament, Kumar, a key ally of the ruling NDA, said, "We had proposed that if special status wasn't feasible for technical reasons, Bihar should receive special assistance (vishesh madat) from the Centre in another form, which has been announced today." The JD(U) supremo evaded a direct reply to a query as to whether he was giving up the demand for special status, and when asked if he was happy with the budget, reacted with a categorical "Haan, bhai (yes, of course).

He also trained his guns at the RJD-Congress-Left combine, which had disrupted the day's proceedings over denial of special status to Bihar.

India’s tax net has to be widened: Sitharaman on changes in tax slab

"It is not just because we have mentioned it in this budget but the attempt to widen the tax net is something which we have been repeatedly saying, that India's tax net will have to be widened – whether it is in the direct taxation or indirect. Second, there are also now PSU dividends which are improving because the valuations have gone up really high and their performance has also now substantially increased. So, revenue mobilisation is not just tax-based, you have non-tax revenue mobilisations which are also coming up. For three years now, we have been talking about asset monetisation, which is not selling of assets but optimum utilisation of those assets which are lying in the form of unutilised stadiums or land which is available with PSUs which can be utilised for better purposes..."