Right ahead of the Budget 2023 speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Congress has said that this year's Union Budget will be presented keeping the Lok Sabha 2024 elections in mind and salaried people should not expect any relief.
"We don't think this Govt is giving any concession to salaried people. They are announcing the budget only for eyewash schemes. They did the same in previous budgets. This time, focussing on 2024 elections, some schemes and reliefs may be announced," K Suresh, Congress' Lok Sabha Chief Whip said ahead of the Budget speech
"We expect that this budget will ideate 2024 General Elections, for an advantage in 2024 elections & some state elections. The last 3 budgets focussed on corporate & upper-class. Middle class & common people were totally ignored," K Suresh added.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has tabled the annual Budget for the fiscal year 2023-24. This was a crucial Budget being the last full Budget of the Modi Government before the 2024 general elections.
On Tuesday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey (2022-23) in Parliament. The Economic Survey 2022-23 has forecast India’s GDP growth for the next fiscal 2023-24 in a broad range of 6-6.8 per cent. Its baseline forecast for real GDP growth is 6.5 per cent.
According to the Economic Survey 2022-23, the Indian economy is “staging a broad-based recovery across sectors”, positioning itself to “ascend to the pre-pandemic growth path in FY23.”
Addressing the media ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India’s budget will attempt to meet the hopes and aspirations of common citizens and be a ray of hope for the world even as the world is going through a global economic turmoil.
Modi further stated that recognised voices in the world of the economy were bringing positive messages from all sides.
To make people aware of the pro-people measured announced in the Budget, the BJP will start a 12-day nationwide campaign on Wednesday.