Faridabad / Alive News: “Dug Mountain, out mice” No doubt people of the country had lots of expectations from the BJP government, but this government handed over lollipop to the people. Well, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hailed his government’s last pre-poll budget as a “big step” towards achieving Ease of Business and Ease of Living. Farmers, rural India and healthcare were the main focus of Budget 2018 — the last pre-poll budget — presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday February 1, but the middle class hopes for Income Tax relief were dashed.
However, the farmers were assured an MSP 1.5 times the cost of production, the poorest of the poor will be covered by universal healthcare to the tune of Rs 5 lakh per year. As consolation prize, the middle class got Rs 40,000 standard deduction against travel and medical expenses. The Budget also gave a boost to Make in India by increasing custom duty on mobile phones, which means handsets made by foreign companies will cost more. In the Budget speech, Jaitley vowed to keep fiscal deficit at 3.3%. Jaitley also announced hike in President’s salary to Rs 5 lakh a month, the Vice-President’s salary will rise to Rs 4 lakh per month and the Governor’s pay will rise to Rs 3.5 lakh a month. Jaitley announced a Rs 150 crore fund to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. As per Budget 2018, Bengaluru Metro will get Rs 17,000 crore and Rs 11,000 crore will be allocated to Mumbai rail network. Breaking with tradition, Jaitley delivered the speech both in Hindi and English.
Let’s see what did people of our city reply while conversing with the Alive News Correspondent about the budget?
The government came out with an insurance plan is very good, because it would cover 40 to 50 million people under this scheme, but it should not be misused. I appreciate the government initiative.
Dr Suresh Arora, Surya Orth& Trauma Center
The government has presented this budget keeping in view the interest of all, but rural people have been given priority in this budget, overall it was a good initiative of the government, by which the rural people will also get a chance of upliftment. I appreciate this initiative of the government.
Arun Bajaj, Industrialist
This budget is not in the favour of the poor, it has been made only for the rich people, and it completely adversely affects the Indian economy, because people had lots of expectations from the Modi government after the demonetization and GST, but the hopes of the people ended after this budget.
Dr MP Singh Educationist
