In view of general elections next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced the Union Budget for 2018-’19 which kept much of its focus on rural plans and easing the agrarian crisis.
The Budget 2018 had headline schemes that include a health care insurance proposal for the poor and an increase in the minimum support price for crops.
Amidst all of this, India’s salaried class felt woefully ignored. The Union Budget offered no relief in the income tax slabs and the standard deduction of Rs 40,000 on taxable income that FM Arun Jaitley announced fell short of expectations.
To top it all, there’s an increase in 1% education and health cess, which extend taxes overall. An additional dividend distribution tax on equity mutual funds and long-term Capital Gains Tax on equity turned out to be an added blow.
There was an increase in the salaries of the president, vice president and governors, while MPs were guaranteed an increment every five years to keep up with inflation. All worked like adding salt to the wounds.
Even though a certain section of people criticised this year’s budget for categorically ignoring India’s salaried class, people on social media still support BJP over Congress.
Earlier today a poll was conducted by NewsMobile team to evaluate whether BJP still receives support following the budget. The poll result reached over 1.3 million gave a thumbs up to the government on the budget.