The Congress today criticized the Union Budget 2018 presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and dismissed it as mere “lip service”.
“The government has attempted to pay lip service to farmers and to other marginalised sections of society, but it is a classical case of too less and completely at the inappropriate time,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said while talking to news agency ANI.
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Talking about the Budget, the CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said that it is not connected “to ground realities” adding that it “is a textbook exercise in post-truth,” reported IANS.
P Chidambaram, the former finance minister, told PTI that, “Finance minister fails fiscal consolidation test. This failure will have serious consequences.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the Budget and termed it as farmer-friendly.
“Desh ki neev mazboot karne wala budget hai, farmer friendly, common man friendly, business friendly aur development friendly hai (The budget will strengthen the foundation of the country. It is beneficial to farmers, common man, businesses and development). I congratulate the Finance Minister for the decision regarding Minimum Support Price. I am sure it will help the farmers tremendously, ” PM Modi said.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took to Twitter and said the 2018 Budget provides a big relief to salaried taxpayers.
“Standard deduction is back after more than a decade. It will provide a significant thrust to consumption & result in an increase in economic growth. Great initiative by FM @arunjaitley! #NewIndia, ” he wrote.
