Budget to make life more difficult for common man: BJP

Main opposition BJP today said the general budget 2010-11 would fuel inflation in food articles, health, education and housing making the life of common man more difficult.

"The devil in the budget lies in details which are clearly concealed," leader of opposition Arun Jaitley said initiating
a discussion in the Rajya Sabha.

Noting that the nation was facing agricultural crisis, he said whether it was food or consumer items, the budget will hit people across the board particularly the middle class and the poor who are going to "sink" with the inflation.

While the budget lacked bold initiatives to address agrarian crisis, the document cleverly added a host of areas under the service tax net. These include health care, housing, low cost air travel and rail freight.

He said in areas like insurance premium on health care and instalment payments for middle class housing, the service tax
has been imposed while the rich have been spared.

By levying and hiking duties on crude oil and petroleum products, the government would be fuelling inflation further and hit dynamic sectors like real estate, cement and automobiles.

While the expectation from the budget was a policy direction and a road-map to push up growth, it would instead "unquestionably accelerate" inflation, he said.

Jaitley said the Wholesale Price Index-based inflation which was 8.5% in February was moving towards double digit and the Consumer Price Index based figure was between 14% and 17%. The food inflation was about 19%.