Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha said that the Budget announcement on income tax cut was misleading
| Photo Credit: Sansad TV
Continuing the debate on the Union Budget in Parliament, MPs from the Opposition said the government had failed to resurrect India’s manufacturing sector, had given inadequate allocation for health and education, and lacked a roadmap to deal with the challenge of artificial intelligence. They also stated that private investments were falling despite cuts in corporate tax.
Independent Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal said the Budget had no vision. He pointed out that the outlay for two critical sectors “health” and “education” remained low. “Only educated India can become a developed India,” he said. He exhorted the government to lay out its roadmap on artificial intelligence. He asked, “What is the vision of this government for AI? All that the Finance Minister said was that we are going to set up 100 centres of AI but first understand what artificial intelligence is and what it can do.”
Mr. Sibal also asked about the preparedness of the government to meet external challenges in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha said that the Budget announcement on income tax cut was misleading. He said that it was only a tax rebate that would help a small population. “Only eight crore people file income tax returns, out of which only three crore actually pay tax. While we welcome the move, we have to think how many people this helps,” Mr. Chadha said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said, had claimed that the move would help in increasing consumption, but that was not true. “As per CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) data, 43 crore Indians fall under the category of middle class. If the consumption has to be increased, then Goods Service Tax, which is paid by everyone, has to be slashed,” he said. Mr. Chadha also slammed the government for falling standards of civic amenities in the Indian Railways at a time of exponential rise in ticket fares.
Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale said that private investors had lost faith in the Indian economy, despite cuts in corporate tax. “We have come to a bizarre point in our economy today, income tax paid by Indian taxpayers is higher than the tax paid by corporates,” Mr. Gokhale said.
Citing the Prime Minister Internship Scheme that was announced last year, Mr. Gokhale accused the government of making empty promises, The target was to give over 1,25,000 internships in private companies to the youth, but so far only 1,000 interns have availed of the scheme, he said.
“This is a great strategy by the Finance Minister — she announces 10 new schemes in every Budget hoping that people have forgotten about the 10 schemes she had promised in the previous Budget,” he added.
Bihar voters misled: RJD
Sanjay Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal accused the government of misleading Bihar voters by making tall promises for the State, without giving any specifics. “There is a misconception that Bihar has been preferred in the Budget but the reality is that the State got nothing and the same announcements have been made since 2015,” he said.
Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali Khan criticised the Budget for “overlooking the minorities”. “The Budget or any policy document depicts the government’s philosophy. In this Budget for 2025-26, minorities have been totally overlooked. With regard to welfare schemes for minorities, the programmes have been either closed or allocations have been cut,” he said.
He said the allocation for pre-matric scholarships for minority groups students had a budget of ₹433 crore in 2023-24, but this time the allocation was just ₹195 crore. Similarly, the post-matric scholarship had a budget of ₹1,145 crore in 2024-25, which was now down to ₹413 crore. “The philosophy of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ [development for all] is definitely not behind it. I think Golwalkar’s book We and Our Nationhood Defined, in which they pledge to make minorities second-class citizens, and Bunch of Thoughts, in which Muslims have been called enemy number one, and Christians have been called the second threat… that philosophy is working behind this Budget,” he alleged.
Left MPs from Kerala said that the Budget was anti-Kerala as no attention had been given to the Wayanad landslide disaster despite the State government’s repeated appeals for assistance.
Published – February 11, 2025 11:07 pm IST