NEW DELHI: Describing the 2023-24 Union Budget as a disappointment, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said no measure was proposed to provide relief from inflation while deputy CM Manish Sisodia called it a “jumla” which will bury the nation in debt.दिल्ली वालों के साथ फिर से सौतेला बर्ताव। दिल्ली वालों ने पिछले साल 1.75 लाख करोड़ से ज़्यादा इनकम टैक्स दिया। उस… https://t.co/sEg03cEaGK— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) 1675242009000Tweeting his reaction after the speech of union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Kejirwal also expressed his disappointment on the “reduction” in the allocation for health and education.इस बजट में महंगाई से कोई राहत नहीं। उल्टे इस बजट से महंगाई बढ़ेगी बेरोज़गारी दूर करने की कोई ठोस योजना नहीं।शि… https://t.co/c0mHZXEoft— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) 1675242008000“There is no relief from inflation in this Budget. On the contrary, this Budget will increase inflation. There is no concrete plan to tackle unemployment. Unfortunate that the education budget has been reduced from 2.64% to 2.5%. Reducing the health budget from 2.2% to 1.98% is damaging,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.With Delhi’s budgetary allocation remaining the same as last year, Kejriwal said it was unfair to the people of Delhi who pay Rs 1.75 lakh crore as income tax. “Stepmotherly treatment meted out to the people of Delhi again! They paid more than Rs 1.75 lakh crore income tax last year. Of that, only Rs 325 crore has been given for the development of Delhi. This is gross injustice to the people of Delhi,” he tweeted.The Centre has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 1,168 crore for Delhi for 2023-24, which is the same as the last fiscal. Delhi’s share for the upcoming financial year includes Rs 951 crore as central assistance, Rs 15 crore as contribution to Union Territory Disaster Response Fund and Rs 200 crore for the Chandrawal water treatment plant as central assistance for externally-aided projects.The Centre has this year included the Rs 325-crore grants, given to the city in lieu of central taxes and duties, under the head of central assistance.In the revised estimates for 2022-23 fiscal, the Centre had reduced Delhi’s allocation to Rs 977 crore, withdrawing the Rs 200-crore central assistance for externally-aided projects extended to the Chandrawal water treatment plant.Addressing a press conference, Sisodia said “Delhi has been getting only Rs 325 crore from the Centre while other states get 42 per cent of the taxes paid by their citizens from the central pool.“We have been getting Rs 325 crore since 2001-02. Like previous years, the Centre has not given anything to MCD while municipal corporations across the country get funds. Delhi has got just Rs 611 per person while Maharashtra has got Rs 64,000, Karnataka Rs 37,000 and Madhya Pradesh Rs 80,000. This is injustice,” he said.Sisodia said the budget will further push the country into debt, which was the most worrying part. The deputy CM claimed the Centre had a debt of Rs 53 lakh in 2014 when the BJP formed a government for the first time. This has increased to Rs 150 lakh crore in the past nine years and another Rs 15 lakh crore will be added to it. “Whenever governments take debt, inflation and unemployment rise. Taking debt never solves any problem,” he said.He said the finance minister didn’t talk about the progress on previous announcements in the Budget, including the promise to run bullet trains, doubling the income of farmers and giving 60 lakh jobs to the unemployed.Lambasting the central government for talking about “inclusive growth” but reducing the allocation for the education and health sectors, Sisodia pointed out that the BJP leaders keep talking about bringing a new education policy as their achievement. “The NEP entails that 6 per cent of the GDP should be allocated for the education sector but the Centre has reduced it from 2.64% to 2.5%,” Sisodia said.The deputy CM said the Budget didn’t offer anything to the middle class. “The Centre’s big announcement of giving relief in income tax is a farce. The fact is that only 0.4% of the assesses who are ultra-rich will benefit from the reduction in surcharge. Nothing has been done to bring down the prices of diesel and petrol and reduce GST on essential items,” he said.Reacting to the comments, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said Kejriwal and Sisodia react to the Budget every year with “political malice”. He said the AAP government forgets to mention the thousands of crores that the Centre spends on controlling pollution, building road infrastructure and strengthening public transport in the city.“The central government also spends thousands of crores on the salaries of Delhi Police personnel and staff of central government hospitals, universities and Kendriya Vidyalayas besides spending on maintenance of these institutions but Team Arvind Kejriwal remains silent on this,” Kapoor said.He added that the Modi government has been continuously giving free ration to about 60 lakh poor living in Delhi since the pandemic struck.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/city-given-stepmotherly-treatment-cm/articleshow/97534435.cms