Budget splurges on corporates: CPI

Hyderabad: The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of India (CPI) said on the whole, the budget presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday reflected the casual approach of the Narendra Modi government on the crisis-ridden economy of the country.

Addressing the media after the budget presentation by the BJP-led NDA government, CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said the Union budget, including the Railway budget, presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley contained nothing concrete for common people, but indicated that while lower income sections would be further burdened and its real patrons, the corporate houses would be given all facilities and concessions.

“The Finance Minister expressed concern on increasing Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) that had pushed the nationalised banks to bankruptcy due to which demonetisation strike was conducted, but failed to present any proposal to recover the NPAs.

The tax concessions to rich that was brought down to 25 per cent from 30 per cent had been continued. The budget proposal has the idea to widen the tax net by forcing the middle classes to be in the net.

Even if they earn more than Rs 5 lakh annually, they have to pay 20 per cent as income tax. People earning Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh annually will now pay 5 per cent of their income as I/T.”