Budget 2018: FM defends no major relief to middle class

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley defended not giving away major relief to India's middle class by saying the government has already done enough in the past Budgets and will do so in future depending on fiscal space.

"If you analyse last four-five Budgets I have presented, I have given relief to the smaller taxpayer almost every time," he said on Friday.

He also said the world's biggest health cover plan announced in the Budget will be cashless and not a reimbursement scheme, and promised more funds if required depending on the rollout later next financial year. The National Health Protection Scheme envisages to provide medical cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, constituting 40% of the population.

"It takes care of hospitalisation, the secondary and tertiary care. Obviously, it will involve various state hospitals and selected private hospitals. It can be on trust model, it can be on insurance model. It's not on reimbursement model because of too many complaints," he said.

The model is now being worked out between the NITI Aayog and the Health Ministry, he said.