In this budget of this time, the central government has given a gift to the middle class openly, it is unprecedented and historic. India’s middle class waits for the budget every year like a celebration. His first sight is on the slab of income tax, how much relief the government has given. Sometimes he feels disappointed, sometimes it gets a discount like ‘cumin in the camel’s mouth’.
For the last few years, we are seeing that the middle class of the country is going to be a victim of frustration. In the race to get votes, this frustration is increasing year after seeing political parties distributing revisions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently indicated in a public meeting in Delhi that it is his priority to give relief to a huge middle class of 50-60 crores in the country. Therefore, as soon as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the tax exemption at the end of the budget, the MPs of the ruling party kept welcoming the tables for one minute.
By the way, if reviewed with a very neutral sentiment, then this big relief can prove to be a quite a visionary step in the following years. Finance Minister Sitharaman says that the government will have a financial loss of about one lakh crore rupees from the new tax slab, but it will also have many benefits in future.
Taking a logical analysis of this exemption, he said that this will bring extra money in the pockets of middle businessmen and employed people, their purchasing power will increase, money will be spent in the market, which will speed up the wheel of the country’s economy. For the last few decades, it has been seen that the people of the middle class have started spending a large part of the earnings, purchasing consumer goods, walks and festivals. It should be called income management, not extravagant. The sense of a little savings also remains inside them. Savings money will also come in banks or stock market. Ultimately, this will also benefit the economy of the country.
As the tradition has been, the opposition has criticized this budget in its own ways. Under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav, some opposition MPs boycotted the budget itself. However, some MPs later returned to their seats. Akhilesh wanted that the accident of Mahakumbh should be discussed first. As soon as Sitharaman started the budget speech, Akhilesh and some opposition parliament started creating a ruckus. This attitude of Akhilesh cannot be called right at all, because PM Modi had already said that he is ready to discuss the Mahakumbh accident in Parliament. This was not possible on the first day of the budget. In such a situation, if Akhilesh’s boycott meant, then only he wanted to keep this issue in the headlines. Of course questions should be asked from the Yogi government on the incident of Mahakumbh, but the way a section is engaged in spreading rumors, it is very dangerous. Do such people want a big accident to happen?
On the budget, Rahul Gandhi made a very interesting comment and said that this budget is like putting “band-aid on bullet injury”. Although this statement of Rahul is nothing but a ritual payment, but even if it is accepted as correct, the BJP and Nirmala Sitharaman tried to put a ointment on the wounds of the middle class at least. Before 2014, we have also seen how the Congress governments ignored the middle class.
For example, we are presenting here the income tax data of the budget of 2011, 2012 and 2013. Prior to 2011, the income of up to 1 lakh 60 thousand in the Congress government was free. This year, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee increased by 20 thousand to 1 lakh 80 thousand. In 2012, P Chidambaram increased it to 2 lakh income tax free. In 2013, the Congress government did not increase any increase. However, a discount of 2 thousand rupees was given in the slab of 2 to 5 lakhs. It is obvious that it was also not a priority of the Congress to keep the method of middle class wounds.
As soon as the BJP government came in 2014, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had increased the tax -free income by 50 thousand to two and a half lakhs. After this, the middle class has been given some relief to the middle class in the tax slab almost every year. In 2020, the income of up to 5 lakhs was once again given a lump sum discount. Finance Minister was Nirmala Sitharaman. In 2023 and this year, the Modi government did wonders. In 2023, an income of 7 lakhs and this time the jump of 5 lakhs and income of 12 lakhs was made free. Undoubtedly, the credit will be given to PM Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Apart from this jump, there is a lot in this budget. The truth is that this budget is the all -round budget of the government running on the principle of “Survey Bhavantu Sukhinah”, which is good for poor, farmer, lower middle class, middle traders, unemployed youth, women and senior citizens. In the budget, a large amount of startups and women entrepreneurs have been kept in the budget. The loan guarantee limit for traders has been ranging from 5 to 10 crores to carry forward the idea of ’Make in India and Make for World’. Together there is a resolve to generate 72 lakh jobs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and PM Modi have been trying to realize the dream of making India a manufacturing hub for the last ten years. That is why they give a message to every youth to run behind government jobs, become the owner of a startup and go ahead by giving employment to the youth of their village with them. It is not necessary to start a big startup. Small and medium startups can also be carried beyond. Small and middle entrepreneurs have had a big hand behind the unprecedented progress that China has made in every area. India also has a huge manpower. The youth also desire to move forward. The need is that our young political parties do not become a tool in the hands of political parties and move forward with a positive sense and take the country forward.
