Congress dubs Budget '18 as 'eyewash'

The Congress Party on Tuesday said that the Union Budget 2018 is "misleading the people of the country".

"This Budget is nothing but eyewash", Congress leader Manish Tewari told ANI, adding that the government has attempted to pay "lip service" to the farmer and marginalise a section of the society.

"If the government was truly serious and committed to the welfare of the society and farmers, then this is the budget they have presented in 2014-15 when they had full five years to be able to implement whatever mandate the people have given them", said Tewari.

Echoing similar sentiments, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that the Budget did not have any "major stories for any of us".

"We were expecting some gesture towards agriculture and some modest gestures have been made in that regard but otherwise it was a surprising mixture of old ongoing programs being recycled and repeated", he added.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stressed that this year's Union Budget would focus on four aspects namely - strengthening of agriculture, education, healthcare benefits and improving infrastructure.

Jaitley also announced two new measures in his fifth Budget under the government's Ayushman Bharat scheme, which are expected to take healthcare to greater heights.

Jaitley also proposed to cut the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent for companies with a turnover of up to Rs. 250 crore.

While presenting the Budget speech, the minister said that the tweak will result in 7,000 companies coming under the 25 percent tax slab.

He added that the government will receive Rs. 7,000 crore less in the form of revenues due to this decision.

"This will see the extension of a trend as the share of corporate tax to total revenues has come down from 34.45 per cent in 2014-15 to 28.18 per cent in 2017-18, under the Modi government," added Jaitley.

--ANI