The Himachal Pradesh Congress on Saturday termed the Budget 2021-22 presented by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur as “directionless” with Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri criticising the government for not providing relief to the common masses from rising inflation. Talking to media, Agnihotri said the Budget document laid in the HP assembly was a half-baked document in which false promises had been made to the people of the state to lure them. “The state government presented a deficit Budget in the assembly in which there is no mention of total debt on the state and gap funding. It is unfortunate that the state government did not mention any of these points in the Budget document and such things haven’t happened in the past,” he added. Agnihotri said though Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur claimed to have presented a tax free budget but there were chances that the government will impose taxes in the year to meet revenue deficit gap. The Budget document was also silent on loans or funding for the schemes that were announced in the budget as the revenue deficit had reached around Rs 8,000 crore. He accused the BJP government of not providing any relief to the common masses from rising inflation and said the government should have lowered VAT on petrol and diesel to ease the burden of pricerise on people. Besides, the government should have provided subsidy on LPG gas cylinders as the people were bearing the brunt of rising prices. He further stated that the state government had only refurbished the Central government schemes in the Budget and was giving false hopes to the people of the state. He also took on the government on the promise of filling 30,000 functional posts and said the decision would pave the way for backdoor entry in jobs in the state. He added the state government had made new false promises to the people of the state while the government hadn’t delivered on schemes that were announced in the last budget.

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