AIADMK senior leader and Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha Thambidurai on Saturday dubbed the Union Budget 2019 a ‘part of the election manifesto of the BJP’. Adding that though a few aspects of the budget are to be welcomed, he emphasised that Tamil Nadu has been ignored by the Centre.
Speaking to the reporters in Thiruvarur, Thambidurai said that the purpose of interim budgets essentially is to provide for the salaries of the government employees for the period before elections.
“They have presented five budgets and they have no right to present a sixth one. These announcements (on sops for farmers and others) should have been made earlier. This reduction of tax for people earning up to Rs 5 lakh, why didn’t they do it in the previous five budgets? Similarly, they have announced Rs 6,000 per year for farmers. Why didn’t they announce this earlier?” asked Thambidurai.
Thambidurai said that the tax rebate for people earning up to Rs 5 lakh is not enough and that it contradicts the eligibility criteria announced under the 10 per cent reservation for people from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of the society.
“So when they are calling people who earn up to Rs 8 lakh as EWS, they should have given tax rebate for the people who earn up to Rs 8 lakh. They didn’t give that. I don’t understand why,” he explained. He also expressed his disappointment in the amount announced as farmers support money and added that it could have been Rs 12,000 and Rs 6,000 is not enough.
Speaking about the situation in his parliamentary constituency of Karur, he said that exports have decreased substantially over the past years. “There is no huge change in the lives of the people in my Karur constituency even when they (BJP) had presented the budget for the last five years,” he said.
However, despite slamming the budget for not giving due importance to Tamil Nadu, Thambidurai also added that he does not want to blame the ruling party for announcing its agenda through the budget.
Source: The News Minute