The union budget that happened on 1st February 2, 2023, has had a shock in the lives of the common man. The members from both the Congress and CPM have come forward stating their disagreement with the Budget that was presented by FM Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament. Except for the minor tax relief for the middle class, the budget has not given any sort of relief to the middle class and the poor. They have also taken off the subsidies, which is indeed going to create a gap between the rich and the poor. They have not promised or secured any employment generation provisions to cope with the increase in prices of items to middle-class people.
The Union Budget that was presented in the Parliament is going to arise further hardships in the future for the country due to a lack of capital expenditure. It has emphasized decreasing the rate of E- vehicles, in a way that almost 70% of the population can afford, and in turn, their focus was to look upon eco-friendly products. The fact of disposal of the batteries of the E-vehicles was not taken into consideration as this too can accumulate a bulky amount of E-waste in society. It is a topic that will come up in the future as a question of environment protection.
Reactions of Politicians from different areas to the 2023 Budget
The Congress called the 2023 Budget as a “callous Budget that has betrayed the hopes of the vast majority of the people”. The Left mentioned it as “contractionary and anti-people”. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, the Budget which will benefit only one class of people, was not futuristic, totally opportunistic, anti-people and anti-poor.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted. “Mitr Kaal Budget has no vision to create jobs, no plan to tackle price rise and, no intent to stem inequality. One percent richest own 40 percent of the wealth, 50 percent poorest pay 64 percent of GST, 42 percent of youth are unemployed-yet, the PM doesn’t care…”
The Union Budget of 2023-24, “a jumla budget” called; Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday and said that it will “drown the country in more debt”. Chief Minister Aravind Kejriwal added that “stepmotherly” treatment had been meted out to Delhi in the Union Budget, yet again. The money paid by the people of Delhi last year in the form of income tax was Rs. 1.75 lakh crore and only Rs 325 crore was given to Delhi for development work. CM Aravind Kejriwal states this act is unjustified.
In conclusion, both Banerjee and Kejriwal said that, this budget is not going to address the unemployment issue. Employment is a significant factor in the development of a country, if the need for employing the unemployed in the country isn’t met, it will lead to a decrease in GDP and in turn result in a decline in income in the country.