Union Budget 2015 disappointing: Samajwadi Party

Criticises service tax being increased and laments UP getting ignored

The ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh has termed Union Budget 2015 as disappointing for the aspirations of common man, especially the middleclass.

Party's spokesperson and UP cabinet minister Rajendra Chaudhary noted that high hopes pinned by people on the Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had crashed.

He claimed there were expectations that the Budget would provide income tax relief and inflation would be controlled. But, the service tax had been increased, which would further burn holes in the pocket of common man and make everything dearer, including eating out, education, phone bill, tractor, home etc.

Chaudhary said the finance minister was averse to providing succour to agriculture and farmers.

Besides, he lamented that while Jaitley had been liberal to Jammu & Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh by announcing IIMs and to West Bengal and Bihar by giving special package on the lines of Andhra Pradesh-Telangana, UP, which was the country's largest state, had been ignored.

Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi represented Varanasi in Parliament, the temple town and UP as a whole was feeling disappointed, he said.

He noted unemployment could not be tackled with mere growth of industrial houses.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government measures growth by the spurt in sensex rather than caring for poor; as such farmers, poor, villages and agriculture could never be central to its agenda, Chaudhary added in his statement.

He said BJP had come to power for five years by creating illusion amongst the people and now it was befooling the masses with redemption of the illusion by 2022.