The Union Budget 2018 was presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 1 February. The government has claimed that the Budget is pro-poor, pro-farmer and also focuses on healthcare, education and agriculture sectors – but the Congress disagrees.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi and other leaders of the party such as Shashi Tharoor, Ahmed Patel and P Chidambaram, have taken the Budget to task.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted his displeasure at the government for the Budget 2018. He took special aim at the ‘fancy schemes’ which have not been giving matching budget allocations, youth unemployment, and the problem of fair prices being given to farmers.
Rahul Gandhi has taken aim at the Finance Minister in the recent past. During the Gujarat election campaign this year, he had described the Goods and Services Tax as the Gabbar Singh Tax.
Former Finance Minister, P Chidambaram has put an official statement which mentions the big disappointments of the Budget. The list includes fiscal deficit, healthcare, jobs, tax relief, exports, agriculture, investment and credit and slashing allocations.
According to senior Congress leader and MP of Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, the Budget does not offer anything for the average citizen. He has hit out at the government for being silent on disaster relief for Cyclonce Ockhi. He has also pointed out that the government has not give any additional funds for MNREGA.
Member of the Congress Working Committee & Member of Parliament from the state of Gujarat, Ahmed Patel has not appreciated the idea of increasing the salary raise of Member of Parliaments, he added that it would have been better if “the salaried middle class would have got income tax relief”.
Senior party spokesperson, Sanjay Jha, has alleged that Arun Jaitley was terribly under-prepared for his last budget.
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