Opposition calls budget anti-poor, pro-corporate

Opposition today slammed the NDA government’s first full fledged budget saying it against the poor and the middle class and largely favours the corporates. Participating in the discussion on general budget in the Lok Sabha, members of various parties like Congress, AIADMK, Trinamool Congress and BJD said the government had reduced allocation for social welfare and anti-poverty programmes while giving benefits to corporates and focusing on FDI.

To target the government, many members specifically raised issues like increase in service tax, no change in income tax slab and failure to pass on the benefit of reducing petroleum prices to consumers.