Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan criticised Union Budget 2025-26 on Saturday in Mumbai.
“We expected some tough decisions to be taken in the direction of further economic reforms, but it has not happened. Everyone is praising the tax cut. It is being said that there will be no tax up to Rs 12 lakh. However, if you want to take advantage of this, the tax exemption which was available earlier should not have been discontinued. So I don’t think the people will really benefit,” Prithviraj Chavan said, reacting to the budget.
“The country’s economic growth rate is slowing down. Even the government has accepted this fact. We are at number 147 in per capita income. It was necessary to increase the average annual income of the people but clearly, this has not happened,” Chavan said.
“There was an expectation that the tears of the farmers would be wiped away, but nothing has been done. Nothing has been done in the education sector either. The Finance Minister praised the agriculture department but nothing was done about the main demand of the farmers who wanted a law to give them guaranteed minimum prices. Even today, seven farmers commit suicide every day in the state. If the income of farmers is less than the cost of input, how will farmers stop comitting suicide?” Chavan said.
“We expected that there would be a radical change in the education sector, but nothing like that has happened. China has surpassed America in artificial intelligence (AI). The question is where are we? 23 IITs have been started, but the quality of instruction is deteriorating because there is no staff to teach in these IITs. 100 per cent foreign direct investment has been approved in the insurance sector. Now foreign companies will come to India. However, it is necessary to strengthen Indian insurance companies,” Chavan said.