Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the Union Budget 2018-19 as farmer-friendly, common citizen-friendly and development-friendly.
He said it focussed on the needs of rural areas and paid attention to all sectors, from agriculture to infrastructure.
“It will give pace to the development of the country...the government is focussed not just on ‘ease of doing business’ but also on ‘ease of living’,” he said.
Speaking about Ayushman Bharat Yojana, aimed at giving the poor up to ₹5 lakh a year for treatment, he said: “The scheme is a path-breaking initiative to provide quality and affordable health care. It will benefit approximately 50 crore Indians. The scale of this scheme is unparalleled and it will bring a paradigm shift in our health sector.”
Ensuring quality care
“It will help them get rid of the worry of incurring cost to get quality treatment. It will help 10 crore families (45-50 crore people),” he said. This would be the biggest government-funded health care scheme in the world.
Mr. Modi said his government would soon announce measures to address non-performing assets and the ‘stress account’ issues of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector. “For a long time, MSMEs faced a lot of burden on the tax front. In this budget, we have also reduced the corporate taxes that MSMEs owe. Now, they have to pay only 25% tax instead of 30%,” he said.
“This budget strengthens the hopes of 1.25 crore Indians... Our farmers have produced record [amounts of] grains and vegetables. To strengthen farmers further, we have taken several important steps,” he said.
( With inputs from PTI )
