Jaya termed Budget as 'clerical exercise'

Dubbing the Union Budget as "weak and tentative", AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa today dismissed it as a "clerical exercise reflecting the continuity of a visionless government".     

"The Budget proposals are not having the qualities that will take India out of the current economic morass on to the path of resurgence," she said.     

Jayalalithaa charged that allocation of a mere Rs 120 crore for the ambitious National ID scheme makes a "mockery of the entire exercise". Though infrastructure spending was higher than earlier, there were very little tax give-aways, the AIADMK chief said.     

She said her party had favoured total abolition of Income Tax for the salaried classes. "At the very least, an increase in the IT exemption limit to Rs 5,00,000 was warranted. But this is not to be.     

"The marginal increase in exemption limits extended across the board makes very little sense in the context of spiralling prices of essential commodities and a bleak employment scenario," she said in a statement.     

"In a nutshell, Pranab Mukherjee's Budget is nothing but a clerical exercise reflecting the continuity of a visionless government," she said, adding "it is partially populist, unimaginative and sets no clear road-map for a better India".     

She, however, welcomed the government's decision to introduce a Bill to enact a Food Security law that will provide 25 kg of rice and/or wheat at Rs 3 to each family below the poverty line.