Nothing for Mumbai, Maharashtra in Budget 2023, says Ajit Pawar

NCP leader Ajit Pawar. File Pic

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Wednesday said the Union Budget "disappointed" the country including Maharashtra and it did not offer anything special for Mumbai.

Terming the budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as "deceptive" and "chunavi jumla (election stunt)", Pawar said it was prepared with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections and polls in nine states.

"There has been a pretence of increasing the exemption limit of income tax to appease the middle class," Pawar, a former state finance minister, tweeted.

By making the announcement that the country's economy will grow to the size of USD 5 trillion, the Union government has admitted to its "incompetence", he said.

"There was no mention in the budget of the promise to create two crore jobs. Like 'Make in India', 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat', it seems that the hollow slogans of this year's budget will also vanish into thin air," Pawar said.

No concrete measures were proposed to reduce inflation and increase employment, the NCP leader said.

Also Read: Budget 2023: New tax regime not for the middle class, says Mumbai-based civic activist

The government conveniently forgot to reduce taxes on essential commodities, he said.

"The inauguration of works carried out by the (Mumbai) Municipal Corporation was done with a great fanfare, but it does not seem that Mumbai has got anything special from the budget. Overall, this budget has disappointed the country including Maharashtra," tweeted Pawar, the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly.

There was no explanation for the waiving off of the loans worth Rs 10 lakh crore of industrialists, he further said.

"The Union government should intervene in the case of a big industrialist which is affecting the Indian economy and common investors," said Pawar, without naming any group.

Nothing concrete was offered to the poor, laborers, farmers, and agricultural laborers, nor was there any mention of guaranteed prices for farm produce, he said.

How can the present period be called "Amrit Kaal" when the country's GDP growth was only 3 percent between 2018 and 2022, Pawar said.

"Maharashtra, which gives the highest revenue to the country in the form of direct and indirect taxes, does not seem to have received much from this budget," he said.

Talking about the increase in income tax slabs, Pawar said the government of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was constantly clamouring for an increase in the tax exemption limit for the salaried class, took eight years to implement it.

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