NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Interim Budget 2024 to be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today, opposition parties expect the budget to be the one that can resolve people’s issues in the country.
CPI MP P Santosh Kumar said, “We will have to see if the government will bring any pro-people policy. They are not doing anything for the general public. I am not expecting anything positive from the government. Since this is the election year, the government might announce some sops”. “They will try to hoodwink the people of India,” MDMK MP Vaiko said.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore hoped that Nirmala Sitharaman would deliver on the promises that they admitted. “Instead of diverting from the real issues, let them address unemployment, the farmers’ pain, MSME sector’s problems and the price rise. We hope that the Interim Budget addresses these important issues, instead of only helping the friends like Adani and other business houses on whose pillars the Modi government is running”, he said.
Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh said that the Budget will be progressive and for the development of the country. “It is an important day,” Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said as the government is set to present an interim Budget.
Congress MP K Suresh said “We are expecting this to be an election-oriented budget. BJP wants to win again and come back to power. That is why, there will be some gimmick in the budget. There will be eyewash schemes for common people. On one side they talk about common people and on the other side, they are increasing commercial gas cylinder’s price and implementing anti-people policies”.
Meanwhile, keeping with tradition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman first called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan together with her colleagues Ministers of State Bhagwat Karad and Pankaj Chaudhary ahead of the Budget presentation in Parliament on Thursday morning.
Sitharaman was seen carrying her trademark ‘bahi-khata’, a tablet wrapped in a red-coloured cloth with a golden-coloured national emblem embossed on it as she came out of the Finance Ministry. She donned a blue coloured saree and completed her look with a golden blouse. She and her Finance ministry team also posed for a photograph.
Over the past three years, a new tradition has been set, where the finance minister carries budget documents in electronic form in a bahi khata. Union Finance Minister Sitharaman will table the interim budget as the Lok Sabha polls are due to be held this year. This will be her sixth Budget as the Finance Minister and last in the second term of the the Modi government. (ANI)