Photos: India reacts to Union Budget 2019

A round-up in portraits of the reactions of a cross-section of India, to the budget tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament yesterday.

Updated on: Jul 06, 2019 2:22 PM IST

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Jude Mathew, 33, a cab driver from Tamil Nadu, says he expected the centre to come out with schemes to benefit vehicle owners in tourism and commercial sectors with GST exemption given to passenger vehicles. “The hike in cess on petrol and diesel is disappointing. I welcome incentives for electric vehicles, but the government needs to create requisite infrastructure for people to buy EVs. It is a mixed bag budget for me,” he said. (Gnanamani / HT Photo)

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Jayati Kumari, 40, a housewife from West Bengal says she is concerned with three items of household expenditure—food items, education and health care. “I am disappointed. None of my three areas of concern were addressed. Moreover, the rise in diesel and petrol prices might lead to an all-round price hike. There was no mention of income tax relaxation that could have left some cash in hand to meet the rising expenditure,” she said. (Samir Jana / HT Photo)

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Nek Singh Khokh, 72, a farmer from Punjab says special focus should be made on water, because agriculture cannot survive without it. Taxes on inputs for agriculture such as pesticides should be reduced, but rather there is no announcement of any relief to the agriculture sector. Increase in diesel prices would burden farmers and there is no announcement of debt relief for the agrarian community and no funds for diversification. (Bharat Bhushan / HT Photo)

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Tanvi Kiran, 31, a PhD scholar from Chandigarh says she expected the government to allocate more money for research and improvement in quality of education. “Overall, a decent budget. New education policy has been introduced to promote research in the country. The ‘Study in India’ programme is a good initiative to attract foreign students. In terms of employment also, it envisages providing new jobs for sustained economic growth,” she said. (Karun Sharma / HT Photo)

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OP Mishra, 55, Additional Home Secretary in the Delhi government says “Standard deduction should be a percentage of your gross income. This will allow personal savings to grow besides ensuring enhanced transparency in income tax return filing.” “The best takeaway for me from this budget is allowing the use of PAN and Aadhaar interchangeably. People will now be able to file their income tax return without needing a PAN card,” he said. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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Asha Bais, 51, a high school principal from Madhya Pradesh says “Nari tu Narayani” is a good move. Similarly she is happy with the allocation of ₹400 crore for world class higher education in India. “But the budget has not brought any relief to the middle class as the finance minister didn’t announce any change in the tax slabs,” she said. (Mujeeb Faruqui / HT Photo)

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Bittu Kumar, 33, a worker from Uttar Pradesh says the Dalit community is worst hit by unemployment. The government should start a minimum income scheme—it will improve our standard of living. “It is good that the government has claimed there would be more money for welfare of the SC (Schedule Caste) community and unorganised sector workers. If our situation improves, then the budget is good, otherwise, it is a waste,” he said. (Deepak Gupta / HT Photo)