The Union Budget presented in the Lok Sabha by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday has evoked a mixed response in Dehradun. While the middle class people sounded disappointed over the income tax slab left unchanged those related to the tourism industry expected the finance ministry to include at least one of the tourist/pilgrimage destinations of the state in the list of the ten iconic tourist places to be developed to the world class standard. Many say that with the fund and other crunch plaguing the medical services in the districts of the State, the Finance Minister’s announcement of setting up 24 new medical colleges and hospitals by upgrading the district-level ones might change things for the better in the Himalayan state.
Sameer, who is looking for a job after completing BTech, said that the announcement of the launch of Prime Minister’s Research Fellow Scheme which would identify 1000 BTechs and help them do Ph D at IITs and some other premier institutes has filled him with hope. “This is a good move. We are feeling as if we are not being left out in the cold. The Centre is thinking of us. We are happy,” he said.
Rashmi, a working woman, vented her disappointment over the income tax structure remaining unchanged. ”Raising the tax slab to ?3 lakh would have been better than the standard deduction of ?40, 000. It is a small concession. We expected something more,” she said.
VV Chaurisia, associate professor of Economics in DAV (PG) College, dubbed the union budget as pro- poor and pro-farmer. “However, it is disappointing for the service class people and those running industries,” he said.
Ankita, another student, hailed the flagship national health protection scheme, providing a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh a family per annum, as announced in the budget. “The scheme would cover 10 crore vulnerable families with approximately 50 crore beneficiaries. Announcement of Rs 600 crore corpus to help TB patients is also a good move,” she said.
Aman, member of ABVP, RSS’s student affiliate, and a student of DAV (PG) College, lauded it as transformational which would bring about a positive change in everyone's lives. “It is a budget for the common man, particularly the farmers,” he added.
SL Singh, a senior citizen, appreciated the Union finance Minister’s announcement of exemption limit on income from interest for them being raised five times to Rs 50,000 per year. “At the same time, he has raised limit of deduction for health insurance premium and medical expenditure to Rs 50,000 from Rs 30,000 under section 80D. This means that all the senior citizens would now be able to claim benefit of deduction up to Rs 50,000 per annum in respect of any health insurance premium and/or any general medical expenditure incurred,” he added.
Anup, a State Government employee, said that the increase in customs duty on mobile phones and TV sets is set to make imported variety of these items much costlier. “As per the budget, the custom duty on mobile phones would be increased to 20% from the existing 15%. However, the move can be supported from another angle. It is meant to promote 'Make in India' which would in turn generate more jobs for the unemployed across the country,” he said.
Suman Kumar, another state government employee, said that the announcement of redeveloping railway stations and fitting all the stations with CCTV cameras would instil a sense of security and among the passengers. ”I am particularly happy as I commute to my native place, Gorakhpur by train whenever I find time to spend a few days with my near and dear ones. Besides, wifi facilities to be made available in the stations would make things easier for us,” he added.