The union budget 2023 was her fifth budget and as the third paperless one presented on 1st of February in parliament by Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman with cheers and applause by the BJP members. This is the last budget presented before the general elections of 2024. The budget has been made with the eye on the Lok Sabha elections. This year’s budget is more a political maneuvering and totally a political budget devoid of economics. The budget is the admixture of good and bad and it attracted mixed reactions from different political parties. It is pro rich, pro capitalist, pro industrialist, pro corporate and anti poor. The budget has nothing to offer for providing jobs and employment to teeming millions and to control inflation and skyrocketing prices of the essential goods and services.
While the budget has proposed certain sops for the salaried, middle class and pensioners as it has proposed to raise the tax exemption to Rs 7.5 lack a year in new tax regime with the inclusion of standard deduction. This is a welcome step for the salaried class and the pensioners if no condition is attached with this proposal. But so for as the control of inflation which has broken the back of the common man and the fight against the unemployment is concerned the budget is silent and has not proposed anything about these two problems facing the poor people. The budget in fact is a mixed bag of joy and despair. This years budget brings a platter of mixed reactions from the common people besides the political parties .Budget 2023 offers a mixed bag for startups. Startups in agriculture space have something to cheer ,but concerns raised by startups in the technology sector remain unanswered. The launch of a unified’ skill India Digital Platform’that will enable demand based formal skilling ,link the youth with employers including MSMEs ,and facilitate access to entrepreneurship schemes,etc.,are all innovative steps in the right direction. However ,concerns of startups in different tech sectors that were raised in the previous budgets remain unanswered with some becoming even more vexing.
The union budget 2023 is also a mixed bag for travel and tourism industry. While the travel and tourism industry applauded the various initiatives announced by the union budget 2023 to give an impetus to India’s travel and tourism sector, the dampeners were the increased TCS(Tax Collected at Source )announced for outbound travel, no respite with respect rationalization of taxes etc. Unlike recent budgets ,this year most taxpayers are in for a pleasant surprise with rationalization of rates and slabs, which reduce effective tax burden. In balance it is a mixed bag. For instance, budget proposals are good and bad for high net worth individuals. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said rightly that there is nothing in budget for the poor. The budget does not reflect the real sentiment of people was said by congress general secretary K.C.Venugopal. The value of Indian rupee is falling at the rate of 10%.In per capita income in the world India is at 144th place and in hunger index India is at a very low level as compared to other major economies .The Budget has nothing to counter rising prices and steeply increasing unemployment and there is also no provision to decrease the inequalities in income between the people and the budget will make rich,richer and poor poorer. The BJP talks high of the Budget being the budget of Amritcal but congress leader has rightly described the budget 2023 as mitracal budget. The budget has nothing concrete to provide pacca housing to the houseless people and the Modi government has even missed that target fixed in this regard in the previous budget of 2022.
The budget is overambitious and not realistic. The budget is callous and has betrayed hopes of vast majority is not said by any ordinary man but by one of the former finance minister. P.Chidambaram. Presenting its budget to the parliament, India’s government seeks to lower its fiscal deficit while offering incentives for investment and stepping up state spending to support an economy that is caught in the global slowdown.Chitranjan Gagan of RJD said that poison is served in the name of Amrit Kaal.The finance minister has only tried to wrap her budget address through words. Budget has ignored villages, farmers and youth and injustice has been done with Bihar by this budget.Sarbanand Sonowal said that the PM Modi and FM Smt Nirmala Sitharaman has gifted to the nation budget 2023 that gives huge relief to our farmers, women, youth unprivileged. Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal said that the budget 2023 does not reflect the real sentiments of the people such as unemployment and price rise.
He further said that the budget is filled with fancy announcements whose implementation is under question .Only insurance companies were benefitted from PM Kissan Yojana not farmers. The prices are increasing steeply but the amount of Kissan Nidi is not increasing and this is a paradox. While there is criticism of the budget from various political leaders but the union health minister Mansukh Mandivya has termed the budget, a step towards achieving Amrit Kaal vision. He further said that the budget promises to free the country from sickle cell anemia when the country celebrates 100 years of its independence. The centre has presented the union budget keeping in mind 2024 parliamentary elections commented Samajwadi party MP Dimple Yadav.He said while the budget has given some relaxation to the middle class, it has said nothing about the Minimum Support Price for the farmers, employment and youth. The budget is disappointing and it has nothing to offer to the railways. However law minister Kirin Rijiju said that allocation of rupees 7000 crore for eCourts will improve justice delivery and facilitate digital environment.
Terming union budget 2023-24 an all-inclusive and visionary, union Home minister Amit Shah said it will give further impetus to resolution of Prime Minister Narendra Modi –led central government for a self-reliant India ,taking every section along. To BJP president JPNadda the budget is an inclusive, growth oriented , visionary. According to him the first budget of the Amrit Kaal reflects PM Modi’s vision and foresight .He welcomed the increase in tax rebate limit from Rupees 5lakh to 7 lakh per year. It is a good provision if some other condition is not attached with it. According to congress president Kharge budget was presented keeping in view the upcoming assembly elections and that there was nothing for the poor people in it. There is for providing jobs ,to fill government vacancies and MNREGA .Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot termed the union budget as disappointing and said reducing the provision for schemes such as MGNREGA proves it is anti –poor, landless, farmers, and the common people.
In the budget only headline-making jumlas have been used to confuse the people. He also said that there has been a significant reduction of 15% (approximately Rupees 23,.000 crore ) in urea subsidy as compared to last year. Important areas such as education, health, social justice and women and child development have been neglected. To conclude it can be opined that the budget is a mixed bag of good and bad and can be termed as old wine in new bottles.

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