Modi’s Boom Boom Strokes to Farmers and Middle Class

Narendra Modi Government has thrown a carrot for the Farmers and Salaried Middle Class ahead of the General Elections. The government has approved the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi to provide assured income support for small and marginal farmers. Under this scheme, 6000 Rupees per year for each farmer in three installments for farmers less than 2 hectares of landholding.

This will benefit 12 Crore small and marginal farmers and will cost a whopping 75000 Crore for the National Exchequer. This is an emulation of Telangana’s Raithu Bandhu but nowhere near the benefits of the scheme implemented here. But something is definitely better than nothing.

Salaried Middle Class is the biggest beneficiary of this Budget. The Government has announced No tax till Rs 5 lakh income for individuals taxpayers. Standard deduction increased to Rs 50,000 from Rs 40,000 and individuals with gross income up to 6.5 lakh rupees will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities.

Tax Exemption for Salaried Class is 2.5 Lakh Rupees until now which means it got doubled at one stroke. This Budget seems to be NDA’s attempt to come back to Power by attracting the Farmers and Salaried Middle Class. A better scheme for farmers would have been a masterstroke but it is still good to attract these classes.