'Like never before Budget' fails to cheer Kurnool women

Kurnool: There is no good news to women, businesswomen and housewives in the Union Budget-2021-22 tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in parliament on Monday, felt the women community from the district.

Two things affect the household economy, one is taxes and the other is petrol to run vehicles and motorcycles. These two sectors if given incentives and concessions would go a long way in building the family economy. These two sops are absent in the Budget, says Ediga Devayani, a housewife and resident of Pedda Tekur village in Kallur mandal.

She said my husband was a small trader but his payment to GST is substantial. The raising of IT limit also would have helped but the government is silent on it so far. Petrol prices had been increasing frequently but the fact is that no new hikes have been proposed in the budget for lower middle-class families, lamented Devayani.

At a time when fuel prices are on a downward trend, the Centre was hiking fuel prices day by day. If the government should have given some relief on the fuel prices, the middle-class people would feel very happy. "Petrol, vegetables and provisions are essential commodities. Without petrol one becomes immobile. So, there is hardly anything for women in this budget," said Devayani.

M Joshua, a construction sector worker and a resident of Panchalingala village, has said that we have nothing to do with the budget. The construction sector has come to a standstill since the rates of cement, steel and sand have touched sky high. We need work to feed our families, said the construction worker.

One Syed Mahaboob Basha, national secretary of Jano Jago said that the Union Budget has greatly disappointed the farming sector, common people and the youths. He said the Finance Minister has nowhere mentioned the allocation of funds to the farming sector in the budget. He further said that with One Nation-One Card, lakhs of common people would be forced to lose their four-wheelers. The government is privatising the governmental organisations with an aim to mobilise Rs 1.75 lakh crores under disinvestment plan. There is no mention of employment generation to 2 crore youths. The proposed budget is nothing but cheating the common people, stated Mabahoob Basha.