Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav, party MPs Dharmendra Yadav, Dimple Yadav and Anand Bhadauriya in the Lok Sabha during the Budget Session, in New Delhi on February 7, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI/Sansad TV

Terming the Union Budget “pro-rich”, Opposition members in the Lok Sabha on Friday (February 7, 2025) urged the Modi government to improve the condition of the common people, farmers and agriculture workers, youth, small and medium enterprises, among others.

Before the discussion on the Budget started, Congress members objected to the absence of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the House. “It has been a convention that the Finance Minister is present at the time of the initiating the debate,” party leader K.C Venugopal pointed out.

Stating that there was no such parliamentary rule, the BJP’s Dilip Saikia, who was chairing the proceedings, pointed out that Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary was present in the House.

As the Congress MPs rose to their feet, Speaker Om Birla took over the House proceedings and assured the protesting members that he would “ensure” that whenever Budget discussions took place in future, Ms Sitharaman would be present.

Initiating the discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, Congress member from Patiala, Dharamvira Gandhi, claimed the Budget failed to address farmers’ grievances. Expenditure towards health and education was stagnating, he said, adding that the government had tried to maintain fiscal deficit at the cost of social sector schemes.

He also called it “unitary” in nature as the States were “not allowed to participate in the Budget-making process”. “It failed to address the grievances of the farmers,” Mr. Gandhi said, adding that the “misplaced priorities” of the government led to the closure of MSME units across the country.

‘Economic favouritism’

Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee alleged that the NDA government had mastered the art of taking away from the poor and giving to the wealthy elite, “the reverse of Robin Hood”.

“For instance, the waiving of corporate loans worth thousands of crores using taxpayers’ money, while poor farmers struggling with debts are left to suffer. The government claims to have no money to increase subsidies on essential commodities, yet it slashes corporate tax rates, giving billionaires an even bigger slice of the pie. This is not economic justice. This is economic favouritism at its worst,” he said.

Congress member from Assam, Pradyut Bordoloi, said the Budget failed to address key issues such as inflation and unemployment, and urged the government to take steps to increase disposable income of the people.

Stating that the tax sops would benefit only two crore taxpayers, he asked the government to expand and strengthen food security, increase allocation to public distribution system (PDS), and universalise free ration distribution for the next two years. “Reduce GST on essentials like food, medicine and medical insurance,” he added

CPI (ML) Liberation MP Sudama Prasad said, “Pro-rich budget has been presented by the government. There is nothing for the poor and youth in the budget”.

Raising the issue of farmer indebtedness, Rajeev Rai of the Samajwadi Party said the government should consider announcing a debt waiver scheme for farmers.

The BJP MP from Jaipur Rural, Rao Rajendra Singh, claimed individual taxpayers had been given benefits of about ₹8.71 lakh crore in the last five years, while the corporate taxpayers got benefits worth about ₹4.53 lakh crore.

Janata Dal (United) MP Alok Kumar Suman and Chandan Chauhan of the Rashtriya Lok Dal said the Budget would benefit all sections of society.