Budget Has Nothing To Offer For Middle Class, Farmers; 'Extremely Negative' For Delhi, Says AAP

The AAP on Tuesday alleged the Union Budget 2022-23 has nothing to offer for the middle class and farmers while Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed it lacked any measure to reduce the "back-breaking" inflation. Delhi's Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, said that the Budget was "extremely negative" for the national capital and betrayed the farmers of the country.

The Centre not only reduced allocation for minimum support price (MSP) but also cut down the number of beneficiaries in the Budget. It also failed to double the farmers' income as was promised, he claimed. "It is the most anti-farmer budget in the history of India and calling it a disappointment is an understatement. What the Centre has done to our farmers is nothing less than stealing from the plate of the hungry."

In a tweet, Kejriwal said, "The public had huge aspirations from the budget due to the pandemic woes. The people have been left bereft. There's nothing in this budget for the common man, nothing that will reduce the back-breaking inflation.' Sisodia said that contrary to expectations that the government will raise the income tax limit, it did not provide any relief to the pandemic-hit middle class.

"The middle class feeds India's economy but the BJP-led Central government has backstabbed it today. Reducing tax slabs could have increased the purchasing power of the already stressed middle class," he said. The deputy chief minister claimed that the budget was extremely negative for Delhi as allocations for the city remained stagnant. "The Budget set aside Rs 69,421 crore for municipal corporations in the country but not a single penny has been given to Delhi's civic bodies," he said.

Delhi's share in central taxes has remained Rs 325 crore for 21 years. "The city government had sought that it be raised this time," he said. "The central government remains indifferent to Delhi as well. While the rest of the states get 42 per cent share in central taxes, only Rs 325 crore is being given to the Delhi government for the last 21 years."

"Giving Delhi only Rs 325 crore out of the budget of Rs 8.16 lakh crore allocated for the share of all states in central taxes shows the negative attitude of the Centre towards the people of Delhi," he said.  Sisodia, who is also Delhi's education minister, alleged the Budget is against the new education policy, which states that the government will increase expenditure on the sector. The allocation has been brought down from 2.64 per cent of the total outlay as compared to 2.67 per cent last year, he claimed.

The overall financial allocation for the education sector for 2022-23 has increased to Rs 1.04 lakh crore from Rs 93,224 crore (Budget estimate) in 2021-22. School education outlay for 2022-23 is at Rs 63,449.37 crore, nearly Rs 9,000 crore more than 2021-22. Sisodia also termed the announcement by the Centre in the budget to create 65 lakh jobs in the next five years as a 'jumla' (rhetoric). "What good are these jobs when 5.5 crore people are unemployed in the country. The production linked incentive scheme (PLI) through which the Centre wants to generate employment has not created one job in two years," he claimed.

With PTI Inputs