Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal launched an attack on the Union Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday and said the government is not addressing the serious economic conditions in the country including the common man's plight.
While talking to ANI, the Congress General Secretary said, "The government is not addressing the serious concerns of the country's economic condition and the common man's plight. This is my first reaction."
Stating that people are in a distressed mood in the country, he said, "The actual problem is whether the Budget is addressing the current economic issues including price rise, and unemployment. There is no income for the people. How can they benefit by increasing the tax limit?"
Notably, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced an increase in the income tax rebate limit from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh stating that the new tax regime will now be the default tax regime.
The Finance Minister also proposed to change the tax structure in this regime by reducing the number of tax slabs to 5 and increasing the tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh.
On personal income tax, the FM announced that "Tax for income of Rs 0-Rs 3 lakh is nil, for income above Rs 3 lakh and up to Rs 5 lakh will be taxed at 5 per cent, for income of above Rs 6 lakh and up to Rs 9 lakh will be taxed at 10 per cent and for income above Rs 12 lakh and up to Rs 15 lakh to be taxed at 20 per cent and above 15 lakhs at Rs 30 per cent."
KC Venugopal also targeted the government for a poor track record of fulfilling promises.
"You have to examine the past promises in the budget. How much have they been fulfilled? The government has promised lot many programmes for the farmers but nothing has been fulfilled. This government's track record of fulfilling promises is very low. They may announce anything in the budget like their manifesto," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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