‘Paying bribe to voters': Opposition attacks BJP

New Delhi, Feb 01: Soon after Union Minister Piyush Goyal presented Budget for 2019-2020, the Opposition Congress attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party and accused the ruling dispensation of bribing voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge termed the Union Budget as BJP's "election manifesto" and accused the ruling dispensation of bribing voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram Friday termed the union budget as an "account for votes" and not a "vote on account".

"It was not a Vote on Account. It was an Account for Votes," Chidambaram tweeted soon after the presentation of the Union Budget.

"The Interim Finance Minister tested our patience by the longest interim budget speech in the recent memory. It was not an interim budget, it was a full fledged budget accompanied by an election campaign speech," he added.

Similarly, in a stinging attack on PM Modi, the Congress party said: "PM Modi can make all the grand announcements he wants but his history of lies has already lost him the trust of farmers."

Introduced by the interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in the Parliament today, the budget offered many benefits to the middle class- a crucial vote bank ahead of the national polls. However, towering all other points, the major income tax relief announcement, impressed the middle class the most.

Goyal announced that individual taxpayers with annual income up to 5 lakh rupees to get full tax rebate, which triggered a huge applause in the Parliament with the NDA MPs chanting "Modi Modi".

Goyal also said that Individuals with gross income up to 6.5 lakh rupees will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities.

The interim budget which focused primarily on farmers and middle class, was being speculated to be a please-all budget at a time when opposition attacks over high prices, and indifference towards farmers, are stronger.