Centre allocates budget for either BJP-governed or poll-bound State: Kavitha

Hyderabad: Responding to the Union Budget delivered by Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, BRS MLC K Kavitha on Wednesday said that the income tax rebate on income up to Rs 7 lakhs in the new tax regime is of no use to the people of Telangana.

"This budget mathematical confirmation of the failure of Modi government. This seems like a budget for few states. We hoped tax rebate of up to Rs 10 lakhs. In Telangana, we pay good salaries to people so this rebate is of no use to us," she said.

Kavitha also said that the Centre only announces development projects in either poll-bound states or BJP-governed states.

"Centre announces development projects in either poll-bound states or BJP-governed states. They announced Rs 10,000 crore for infrastructure, which infrastructure? They are not clear. They owe us Rs 1000 crore & I request Finance Mininster to pay our dues," she further said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the personal income tax rebate is extended on income up to Rs 7 lakhs in the new tax regime.

The minister also announced revised tax slabs.

"I introduced in 2020, the new personal income tax regime with 6 income slabs, starting from Rs 2.5 Lakhs. I propose to change the tax structure in this regime by reducing the number of slabs to 5 and increasing the tax exemption limit to Rs 3 Lakhs," the Finance Minister announced.

"This will provide major relief to all tax payers in the new regime. An individual with an annual income of Rs 9 lakh will be required to pay only Rs 45,000. This is only 5 per cent of his or her income. It is a reduction of 25 per cent on what he or she is required to pay now, ie, Rs 60,000. Similarly, an individual with an income of Rs 15 lakh would be required to pay only 1.5 lakh or 10 percent of his or her income, a reduction of 20 percent from the existing liability of Rs 1,87,500," she said.

Soon after the Budget session which was tabled by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi MPs on Wednesday slammed the Centre for not allocating anything for Telangana. Addressing the media, MP Keshava Rao said that there is nothing new in the budget presented by the Centre. He said that the finance minister not even once uttered the name of Telangana in her budget speech. He also said that Centre had given allocation to both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka but not for Telangana. He added that Centre keeping in elections in mind has kept huge allocations for the country for their political mileage.

Similarly, MP Nama Nageswara Rao slammed the Centre for neglecting Telangana in the budget allocation. He said that the Centre ignored all the pleas by the State government over funds for the Kaleshwaram project. He said that the budget is heard by all the people of the nation and Telangana was expecting allocation of funds to the State but it was so disappointing. He also said that the Centre is now focussing on Sree Anna: Millets, Ragi , Johar etc as if no one has cultivated or consumed earlier in the country. He said that most of the budget was only running around bush and nothing else.