Congress has roundly criticised the budget, though some opposition parties have welcomed it.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that the General Budget lacks both vision and conviction.
"Modi ji spent the first 2 years mocking the Congress Party's focus on farmers, MNREGA, Rural dev and social spending. Now mere rhetoric, without vision or action, will fool neither farmers nor the poor of this country. Budget2016 lacks both vision and conviction,"he said in a series of tweets. He said that the budget is full of new promises without any account of tall promises made in last two budgets. The Congress vice-president, however, thanked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for accepting his recommendation on removing import duty on Braille paper to help the visually impaired persons.
The grand old party criticised the General Budget tabled in the Parliament saying there is no big idea in it. Briefing media here in the national capital, former Finance Minister and senior party leader P Chidambaram said there is no relief for the tax payer or for the middle class in the budget. He said little has been done to encourage private investments which leave many projects stranded.
Presenting his third successive Budget in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Finance Minister Jaitley listed nine thrust areas of tax proposals to transform India. To provide relief to small tax payers, he proposed to raise the ceiling of tax rebate under section 87A from Rs. 2,000 to five thousand for income not exceeding Rs. 5 lakh.
Two crore tax payers will get a relief of Rs. 3,000. Additional deduction of Rs. 36,000 a year is proposed for those who do not own any house or get any house rent allowance. They will get an exemption up to Rs 60,000 now. Presumptive taxation extended to professionals with gross receipts up to Rs. 50 lakh.
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