The Opposition said the Budget was heavily in the favour of the states that are under the governance of the ruling BJP and NDA, such as Bihar.
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her eighth consecutive Union Budget in Parliament on Saturday, 01 February 2025. As soon as she started reading out the budgetary speech, the Members of Parliament from the opposition parties staged a symbolic walk out in the Lok Sabha as the Opposition termed Budget 2025 “biased”
The Opposition said the Budget was heavily in the favour of the states that are under the governance of the ruling BJP and NDA, such as Bihar.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge criticised the budget for neglecting non-NDA states as he claimed that it was an anti-people budget that did not do justice to various regions of the country.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the government of putting a “band-aid for bullet wounds” adding that the government is bankrupt of ideas.
A band-aid for bullet wounds!
Amid global uncertainty, solving our economic crisis demanded a paradigm shift.
But this government is bankrupt of ideas.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 1, 2025
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal heavily criticised the government for not waiving off home loans and vehicle loans of the middle class and farmers.
The former Delhi Chief Minister posted on X: “A large part of the country’s treasury is spent on waiving off the loans of a few rich billionaires. I had demanded that it be announced in the budget that from now on, the loans of any billionaire will not be waived off. With the money saved from this middle class home loans and vehicle loans should be waived off; farmers’ loans should be waived off and Income tax and GST tax rates should be halved. I am sad this was not done.”
देश के खजाने का एक बड़ा हिस्सा चंद अमीर अरबपतियों के क़र्ज़े माफ़ करने में चला जाता है। मैंने माँग की थी कि बजट में ये ऐलान किया जाए कि आगे से किसी अरबपति के क़र्ज़ माफ़ नहीं किए जाएँगे। इस से बचने वाले पैसे से
1. मिडल क्लास के होम लोन और व्हीकल लोन में छूट दी जाए; किसानों के…
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 1, 2025
Meanwhile, AAP MP Sanjay Singh claimed that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government intends to continue relinquishing massive sums for industrialists.
“AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal had demanded the government to announce that it will stop waiving off corporate loans and recover the Rs 16 lakh crore that Modi ji has forgiven of his capitalist friends. That money could have been used to halve GST and income tax rates—but no such announcement was made. This clearly shows that the Modi government intends to continue waiving massive sums for capitalists,” Singh said.
“They have announced relief for the salaried class earning up to Rs 12 lakh, but what about small and medium business owners? How will they get any relief?” he added.
Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP said that the Union Budget was made keeping the upcoming Bihar assembly elections in mind and West Bengal did not get any sops.
“There is nothing for the common man in the budget. As you know that there are elections in Bihar this year, so keeping that in mind, the budget has been presented for Bihar. Everything has been given to Bihar,” said Banerjee.
Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav said that nothing new was offered in the Union Budget while party supremo Akhilesh Yadav stressed that the lives lost in the Mahakumbh stampede are more significant than budgetary figures.
