The interim budget of the Modi government touched a lot of milestones and included various sops for all classes of society including farmers, traders, the middle class, business persons and even unorganized sectors but the silent feature of the interim budget is its reach to the masses.
The wide spectrum of citizens that will draw benefits from this budget is unprecedented. For the benefit of farmers the Modi government announced the ‘Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi’ scheme, which will benefit over 12 crore farmers who own 5 acres or less than 5 acres of land. Under the scheme, the Modi government will transfer the direct benefit of 6,000 rupees per year for landholders up to 2 hectares. The total amount allocated to this scheme named Pradhan Mantri Samman Nidhi is 75,000 crore rupees for the year 2019-20. This will be implemented retrospectively from December 1, 2018.
PM: For farmers, there have been several schemes by different govts from time to time, but only 2-3 crore farmers were included under these schemes. But now PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme will benefit over 12 crore farmers who own 5 acres or less than 5 acres of land. #Budget2019 pic.twitter.com/EnAu6W50mv
— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2019
Further, in the 2019 interim budget, the Modi government increased the income tax exemption limit to 5 lakh rupees. The NDA government has doubled the income tax exemption limit from the existing 2.5 lakh rupees. As of now, the tax on income up to 5 lakh rupees stands at 10 percent. The Finance Minister in an interview, earlier today, claimed that this scheme will benefits about 3 to 3.5 crore people. Piyush Goyal further clarified that the numbers of beneficiaries may vary, but the government didn’t make any change in the tax rates. “We just made the change that those with an annual income of less than Rs 5 Lakh will have to pay zero tax,” added Goyal.
FM Piyush Goyal: 3-3.5 cr people (will be benefitted). We'll get a final data when the final tax returns of the next yr come…We have not disturbed the tax rates. We just made the change that those with an annual income less than Rs 5 Lakh will have to pay zero tax. #FMtoANI pic.twitter.com/mEKtDaFtz5
— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2019
Going one step ahead, Piyush Goyal announced a pension for the workers of the unorganized sector. From now onward, unorganized sector workers will get a 3,000 rupees monthly pension under the mega pension scheme announced in 2019 Budget. The retired senior citizen of 60 years or older could avail benefits of this scheme. The money allotted to this scheme in this 500 crore rupees in this budget. This will benefit 10 crore workers in the unorganized sector in the country.
Moreover, the Finance Minister announced a total of 8 crore free LPG connections under the Ujjwala Yojna. Under this, over 6 crore connections have been already provided and by next year the government proposed to cover the targeted number. It will be a big achievement in order to make the public utilise clean cooking gas universally.
In terms of reach, this budget is one of the most expansive ones. The schemes announced in the Budget will directly benefit at least 33 crore voters. The electoral dividends from this rudimentary number alone are enough to make BJP sail through the 2019 elections. Keeping in mind that in 2014, the BJP received 282 seats with just 17 crore people voting for them, the number of eligible voters this budget covers is enough to make the BJP reach the 350 seat target, even with conservative conversion rates.