Union Tourism Minister KJ Alphons today said that while the annual budgetary allocation of Rs 6,000 for small farmers -- translating to Rs 3.3 a day per person for a family of five -- may not exactly sound like a monetary bonanza in terms of income support, it happens to be the foundation on which greater things can be built in the future.
"This budget is just a trailer of bigger things to come. We have made big beginnings with assured income for farmers, we have fixed the minimum selling price for 22 crops. You can take a paper and a pen and make calculations that say it is so little, but it's a great beginning and a trailer of much bigger things to happen," he told NDTV in a televised interview.
The interim budget was delivered in parliament by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday. The budget speech heavily praised the government's programmes over the last four-and-a-half years, sometimes prompting boos from the opposition.
Mr Alphons downplayed the not-so-impressive hike of Rs 5,000 crore granted to the rural job guarantee scheme, taking the total figure to Rs 60,000 crore. "Funds -- if required -- will be provided. Farmers have been taken up in a small way because this is just the beginning of the process to provide them guaranteed income. All this must be seen in the light of the centre's achievements in the last four and a half years," he said.
He also cited the tax relief provided to the middle-class to make a case for the Narendra Modi government's commitment to public welfare. "Somebody who has an annual income of up to Rs 6.5 lakh can remain out of the tax net if he invests 1.5 lakh rupees in funds permitted by the government. So, 95% of the taxpayers are now out of the net, and I think that's a big relief," Mr Alphons said, adding that the government will proceed to the next stage of development - ensuring dignity for the people - if re-elected in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The Tourism Minister also attributed the 1.43% hike in the defence budget to the government's need to balance its priorities. "So, we have 'x' amount of money with which we have to take care of every category of people. There are farmers, there are students, the industry, the middle-class people. So we have to split funds in accordance with what is sorely required. For example, I will be happy if more money is pumped into tourism, but the overall availability of money and the priorities of the government need to be taken into account too," he said.
Mr Jaitley, in a tweet, described the interim budget as a "pro-growth, fiscally prudent, pro-farmer, pro-middle class and pro-poor" phenomenon that caters to most sections of the society. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, however, described the budgetary handout of Rs 6,000 a year as an "insult to small farmers".
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