She admits that the Modi Government’s first Union Budget (2014-15) has brought in no sweeping changes and has definitely missed the ‘big bang’ that was expected of the Government. “However, I am upbeat about the various exemptions that have come to the average Indian middle-class family,” said Manju Das, who lives in Dwarka, with her husband and two children. The family lives in a self-owned medium size house and has a college going daughter and an office-going young son. “We welcome the rebate on income tax, house loan and reduction in costs of oil, TV (small), soaps etc. The hike on tobacco products is also a step in the right direction,” said Ms. Das.
“My husband works in the pharmaceutical sector and this budget hasn’t really brought in the punch that we were expecting from this government. There is no talk about bringing back the black money stashed in foreign banks, making the big industrialists more responsible and ensuring that the benefits are passed onto the common man. There are no clear cut policies on job creation for the young or bringing in some sort of uniformity in educational fees,” she added.
“There were no major changes or contribution to ease the strain on the household budget,” she added.
“For a middle class family we expected more from this Government which has come in with full majority. What is most worrying is the fact that there is no actual scope to increase our savings. Besides this, there does not seem to be any cap on price rise that has badly bruised the budget of an average Indian family. Our immediate concerns of rising cost of daily food items including pulses, sugar, fruits, vegetable, milk, petrol etc have not be adequately addressed in this budget,” she maintained.
Seconding his wife’s concern about rising cost of living, Mr. Das chipped in: “I believe that this is a good budget. Yes there is no immediate relief for the common man but maybe this is the ground work for the long term overall development of the country. Our daily concerns have not been addressed but we are hopeful.”
However, refusing to give her thumbs-up to the budget, their daughter Shreya Das said: “It’s a useless budget. There is nothing in terms of clear and immediate relief for the common man. There is not much for the young in terms of job creation.”
