Guntur: No use of Budget to poor, middle-class people

Guntur: Indian Chamber of Commerce president Atukuri Anjaneyulu said imposing of agriculture cess on petrol, diesel will lead to increase of transport cost and prices of essential commodities and vegetables and fruits. He said as a result middle class and poor families will suffer a lot.

He said that the government did not allot any funds for the development of infrastructure. There is a change in the income tax slabs, he said and added that due to lockdown caused by Covid-19, industrialists and employees suffered a lot. There is no use of this budget to middle class and poor families. He criticized that the Union budget is not useful to the poor and middle class families.

Former MP Dr Yalamanchili Sivaji said that the Central government give nothing to AP in the Union budget. The Centre did not allot any funds for Polavaram Project, even did not mention about separate railway zone for AP. He added that due to policies of the Central government, the debt burden will increase on the Centre. However, the Centre allotted funds to the States where elections will be held soon.

He felt that due to flight corridor, goods transport will become easy and recalled that the centre did not mention about Special Category Status to AP.

Acharya Nagarjuna University Prof GVSR Anjaneyulu felt that Union budget presented by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman in Parliament is more useful to the higher income groups than poor. He said that the cost of luxuries can be borne of the above middle-class people and added that middle class and poor families would have to face hardships due to this Budget. Allocation of more funds to research and development is a good sign for the development of country. Reduction of corporate tax by 10 percent is not useful to the poor and establishment of the central university at Leh is good step for national integration.

Dr Sumita Shankar felt that 130 per cent increase in allocation for health in the budget is good indication, which is 1.8 per cent of GDP and added that countries like USA & Western Europe will allocate 4% to 9% of their GDPfor healthcare. Setting up of virology labs, Rs 35,000 crore for Covid-19 vaccine is good to the nation and it will have its impact in the long run.

The Budget allocations indicate that the Central government is giving more priority to health. She expressed confidence that like this, the Central government will increase the budget allocation for health in the coming years also.