Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva welcomed the Union Budget 2024-25 as a medium of developing the country on the lines with a developed India of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to be realised by 2047.
He said for another decade or more, the country has to work on an agenda of ‘home for all’. With this, the budgetary provisions for Awas Yojna (home scheme) have been increased.
He, however, expressed his disappointment over the Awas Yojna investment, which has been increased in the Budget 2024-25, is unlikely to benefit the poor of Delhi, alleging that the Kejriwal Government is not allowing the implementation of Central housing schemes in the national capital.
He further said that the budget is beneficial for the women and youth, as it directly allows income tax relief for the newly employed youth, especially in small towns taking up secondary and tertiary jobs.
The 50 per cent Standard Deduction relief is going to benefit the entire salaried class, Sachdeva added.
He said that setting up of Women Special Talent Training Programmes along with an increased focus on developing working women hostels and child centres is going to widely benefit entire working women of the country.
The Delhi BJP president has expressed gratitude to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for giving much more than the Delhi government demanded and added that the increase in allocation under various heads for the city will vastly benefit the residents.
“The Delhi government was demanding 10 per cent of Direct Taxes collected from Delhi which is around Rs. 21000 crores but the budget gives back almost 30 per cent of the tax collected from Delhi under various service heads,” he claimed.
Sachdeva said that the direct budgetary allocation for Delhi is Rs. 1,168 crore apart from Rs. 11,180 crore for operational costs of Delhi Police along with Rs 220 crore for infrastructure development of Delhi.
Other allocations for Delhi come under heads of Delhi Metro, NHAI, RRTS, NDMC operational costs, Budgets of various central hospitals of Delhi like AIIMS & RML, etc, cost of pensions to Delhi Government employees, Budgets of Central government universities, etc., and all of it add up to over Rs 50,000 crore which, he said is around 30 per cent of Direct Taxes collected from Delhi.