Budget will benefit big companies, result in inflation: Arvind Kejriwal

"This budget is a benefit to a few big companies. It will work to increase the problems of common people with inflation," Kejriwal tweeted hours after the budget was announced.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Union Budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday would benefit only the "big companies" and result in inflation. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader’s comments came after Sitharaman proposed doubling healthcare spending and lifted caps on foreign investments in the insurance market to help revive an economy that suffered its deepest recorded slump as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Sitharaman projected a fiscal deficit of 6.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2021-22. The current year was expected to end with a deficit of 9.5%, she said, well up from the 7% expected earlier.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

"This budget is a benefit to a few big companies. It will work to increase the problems of common people with inflation," Kejriwal tweeted hours after the budget was announced.

In the historic budget, first, to be announced after the coronavirus pandemic, ₹35,000 crore were allocated for Covid-19 vaccine development. As part of Union Budget 2021-22, the finance minister announced a slew of taxation reforms such as exemption from filing tax returns for senior citizens above the age of 75 with only pension income.

While some leaders said the budget was not friendly for the common people and the middle class, others lauded it as the budget of a self-reliant India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Sitharaman on the announcements and said the budget carries a "sense of reality" in it and "confidence of development".

"This budget will bring several positive changes for individuals, investors, industry and infrastructure sectors. I congratulate FM Nirmala Ji and her team on this Budget," PM Modi said. "We have taken the approach of widening new opportunities for growth, new openings for our youth, a new high to human resources, develop new regions for infrastructure, walking towards technology and bring new reforms in this budget," he added.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the budget on the grounds that it did not increase the cash flow into the hands of people. "Forget putting cash in the hands of people, Modi Govt plans to handover India's assets to his crony capitalist friends," he tweeted.