Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, while reacting to the Union Budget on her official twitter handle today termed the Union Budget presented by the union finance minister Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman as “completely visionless” and “taxing” for the common people.

Taking a jibe at the centre, Ms Banerjee said: “ The Union Budget presented today was completely visionless. In fact, the total vision is derailed. On top of it, not only have they imposed cess but also special additional excise duty on petrol and diesel leading to price increase by nearly Rs 2.50/litre for petrol and Rs 2.30/ litre for diesel. As a result price hikes will hit from transport to market to kitchens. Commoners are suffering and suffering. This is Election Prize.”

Advertisement

Trinamul Congress national spokesperson Mr Derek O’ Brien said, “This is a dream budget. Government is still only selling dreams and not delivering. Far from a dream, it’s a nightmare for common people who are suffering. FDI in media, aviation and more benefits to foreign insurance intermediaries means government has introduced concept of Sell India. Jobs and the issue of job creation were not addressed in policy terms. We were told about a TV programme for start-ups. Railways discussed for only two minutes. So, as Trinamul had predicted a few years ago, the Railway Budget has disappeared Special Purpose Vehicle ( SPVs) for Railways is anti federal. It burdens states. Cess too, mocks federalism, since cess is not shared by Centre with states”.

On farmers Mr Brien said, “At current growth rates, the government’s promise of doubling farmer income will only happen in 2040 not 2022. Bengal has already tripled farmer income.”

Mr Partha Chatterjee, party secretary general and state parliamentary affairs minister said that the Union Budget presented by the Centre was one of a “faceless, baseless and actionless” budget.

To sum it all “ it is a budget sans vision and substance”, said Mr Chatterjee. Ridiculing the Budget, Mr Chatterjee said that the Budget found no mention of job opportunity for the youths in the country. Nor the did the budget mention anything worth for the farmers and farming community in general. It made the budget more “taxing’ for the common people by hiking prices of petro products viz, petrol and diesel. “ That would not only hit the common people in a big way but would also have a cascading effect on the everyday life as it will have price spiral. The price of every essential commodities will shoot up and common people will suffer,” said Mr Chatterjee.

On the other hand, the recent hike in the prices of petrol and diesel, announced in today’s Union Budget, has left the vehicle owners and drivers in the city worry about how they are going to continue with their transportation business while citizens claimed that the increased prices will also have an impact on the prices of commodities that are brought to the city in trucks. Arijit Ghosh, an app cab driver said: “The prices of diesel and petrol are surging every alternate day. Earlier, diesel used to be much cheaper than petrol. Now both the prices are almost same- diesel Rs 2.30 per litre and petrol Rs 2.50 per litre. Once the price of petrol and diesel exceeds, prices of other items are going to increase as well. Customers will not prefer taxis anymore and hence we are going to face loss again for some days.”