No relief in tax disappoints, Capex boost, fiscal prudence bring cheers

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, February 1

No changes in tax rates disappointed the salaried and middle class while steep hike in capital investments, focus on fiscal consolidation, infrastructure, agriculture, green growth and railways have brought cheers to the business community in Ludhiana, which is popularly known as Manchester of India.

Industrialists, self-employed, employees, students and lower, medium to high class sections in the state’s industrial capital have hailed the focus on strengthening of domestic macro factors, including sustained investments in infrastructure, agriculture, domestic tourism, and also sticking to fiscal responsibility with a lower fiscal deficit, which could be music to the ears of foreign investors, announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Interim Union Budget for 2024-25 to Parliament on Thursday.

However, the common man on the street found nothing lucrative or on offer for the ones looking for some relief from the rising inflation in the sixth Budget presented by the current FM and the last one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Government’s second term.

A cross-section of the local residents, including agriculturists, to whom The Tribune spoke to elicit the Budget reaction, also welcomed the building on the massive tripling of the capital expenditure outlay in the past four years resulting in a huge multiplier impact on economic growth and employment creation. The outlay for the next fiscal has been increased by 11.1 per cent to Rs 11.11 lakh crore, which is 3.4 per cent of the GDP.

They lamented that the Central Government has again ignored the “aam aadmi”, who was finding it difficult to make both ends meet due to skyrocketing prices of essentials in the present times.

Raghbir Chand, a tea vendor, said: “There is nothing for us to cheer for in the Budget as we are once again left to fend for ourselves with no relief offered to the poor and marginalised sections of society, who are on the verge of extinction.”

“Big boost to the Capex, which has been increased by 11.1 per cent to Rs 11.11 lakh crore, has shown that the Centre’s priorities are building roads, highways and railway lines,” said a leading infrastructure promoter, Rachna Singhal.

A tax consultant, Sakshi Kapoor, felt that the salaried and middle class was expecting some relief in terms of lower tax rates in direct and indirect taxes, besides incentives but nothing of that sort was announced.

“Converting 40,000 normal rail bogies to Vande Bharat to enhance the safety, convenience and comfort of passengers, besides expansion of key rail infrastructure projects, including Metro Rail and Namo Bharat, to more cities and three new major railway corridors — the port connectivity corridor, the energy, mineral, and cement corridor, and the high traffic density corridor, will facilitate travellers and bring revolution in the railway sector,” said a frequent train commuter, Rajesh Sharma.

Samiksha Rani, who runs a self-help group (SHG), was buoyed over the FM’s announcement to enhance the target for ‘Lakhpati Didi’ from 2 crore to 3 crore. Already, 83 lakh SHGs with 9 crore women have transformed the rural socio-economic landscape with empowerment and self-reliance. Their success has assisted nearly 1 crore women to become ‘Lakhpati Didi’ already.

“Enabling 10 million households to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity every month through roof-top solarisation will bring much-needed relief to the middle class,” expressed a homemaker, Aashika Singh. The scheme will help save up to Rs 15,000-Rs18,000 per annum for households from free solar electricity and selling the surplus to distribution companies.

A leading transporter, Gurjeet Singh, said announcing various measures towards meeting the commitment to ‘net zero’ by 2070 would be a big push to the green energy initiative.

“The government’s plan to expand and strengthen the electric vehicle ecosystem by supporting manufacturing and charging infrastructure, besides encouraging greater adoption of e-buses for public transport networks through payment security mechanisms will be a game changer,” felt an EV-maker, Rashi Sapra.

A tourism industrialist, Vivek Sood, said the FM’s announcement that states would be encouraged to take up comprehensive development of iconic tourist centres’ branding and marketing at a global scale would give a push to the sector.

“To encourage sustained foreign investment, the government’s announcement to negotiate bilateral investment treaties with foreign partners, in the spirit of ‘first develop India’ will lead to investment promotion,” said a leading industrialist, Sudha Tyagi.

“Bringing technology as a focus sector will help change the lives of people and businesses with new-age technologies and data,” opined a young entrepreneur, Manpreet Singh.

An anganwari worker Ranjeet Kaur was upbeat to learn that Ayushman Bharat cover will be extended to all anganwadi and Asha workers.

“FM’s announcement to bring all maternal and child healthcare schemes under one comprehensive scheme will prove beneficial,” said social activist Suchitra Kumar.

A village sarpanch, Rulda Singh, said the announcement to build two crore more houses under the PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) in the next five years to meet the requirement arising from the increase in the number of families will provide homes to the homeless.

“Prioritising the policy to provide training for MSMEs to compete globally and facilitating their growth will give us a big boost,” felt a MSME promoter, Rashika Jain.

Another budding industrialist Anupama Singh said the Skill India Mission’s initiative to train 1.4 crore young individuals, along with the upskilling and re-skilling of 54 lakh youth, coupled with the establishment of 3,000 new ITIs, was a vital step towards bolstering the PLI and Make in India programmes.

“The FM’s announcement that the efforts for value addition in the agricultural sector and boosting farmers’ income will be stepped up is a welcome step,” said progressive farmer Swaranjit Singh.

“To ensure faster growth of the sector, the government’s plan to further promote private and public investment in post-harvest activities, including aggregation, modern storage, efficient supply chains, primary and secondary processing and marketing and branding will turn out to be a boost for agrarian states,” felt agriculture expert Amanjit Singh.

What they say

Nothing major was expected and accordingly it turned out to be so. Hopefully, the new government will bring in a full Budget with relief for taxpayers. The health cover under the Ayushman Bharat scheme extended to ASHA, anganwadi workers and helpers is appreciated. Still a lot more is required to make the scheme fully successful. Almost 9 to 10 per cent of Indian families are pushed into poverty on account of exorbitant spend on healthcare. I’m still not sure that 5.8 per cent fiscal deficit for current year as announced by the FM would be adhered to. — Sanjeev Arora, Rajya Sabha MP

It’s nothing but an attempt to woo people in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. Where is jobs for the unemployed? The Budget is nothing but to entice people during the poll. Our country has fallen far down on the list of starvation; will the Budget help us get out of it?Rs — Ravneet Singh Bittu, Ludhiana Cong MP

The Interim Budget has addressed aspirations of youth and women and given importance to science, innovation and technology. It comes in a sequence that for the past 10 years the country has been moving to higher stages. — Anil Sarin, PUNJAB BJP general secretary

The Interim Budget 2024 is hollow. There is nothing for the youth, women and farmers. I saw arrogance when they said they would present the Budget in July. You cannot take any election for granted. — Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Shiromani Akali Dal MP

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