New Delhi, Feb. 11 (PTI): The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the 2019-’20 interim Budget though several parties such as the Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Nationalist Congress Party walked out of the House, PTI reported.
Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal presented the Narendra Modi government’s final Budget for this term on February 1. Though the Budget was termed an interim one, as 2019 is an election year, several analysts said Goyal broke convention as the Budget was packed with major welfare schemes. By convention, outgoing governments present an interim Budget of expenditure and receipts instead of a full one.
Goyal’s proposals included a full tax rebate for individual taxpayers with annual income up to Rs 5 lakh, pension scheme for workers in the unorganised sector and assured income support for farmers with small landholdings. Several Opposition parties also criticised the government for its “election Budget”.
Earlier in the day, Congress members raised in the Lower House the issue of an alleged attempt made by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karnataka unit to poach MLAs. Following this, BJP members protested. Samajwadi Party members continued to protest over the roster system for faculty reservation in universities.
While the Congress and some other parties walked out of Parliament after the House took up the interim Budget for discussion, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Thambidurai said that the government should not have announced populist schemes in an interim Budget. “They had four years to announce them, but they have not,” he said. “It is good that the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] has improved, but unemployment is huge and the highest in the last 45 years.”
The Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, was adjourned on Monday without any proceedings as Congress and Telugu Desam Party members protested against various issues.
