'Welcome only 1...': Shashi Tharoor, P Chidambaram 'pleased' with Nirmala Sitharaman's announcement

Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and P Chidambaram on Tuesday accused the BJP-led NDA government of plagiarising the Congress party's election manifesto and including the latter's promises in the Budget speech. However, one announcement made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman appeared to have pleased the two erudite leaders.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor called the Budget underwhelming. He said Sitharaman skipped the key issues faced by the common man.

"It is an underwhelming budget. I didn't hear anything about the key issues facing the common man. There is no mention of MNREGA, and insufficient mention of steps taken to improve the income of a common person," he told ANI.

Shashi Tharoor claimed far too little was done to address the income disparity. He also described the Centre's employment push in the Budget as a "token gesture".

Also read: Budget: Centre proposes to increase STT, capital gains tax

He, however, welcomed Sitharaman's announcement of abolishing the Angel Tax.

"I welcome only one provision, which is abolishing of tax on angel investors. I had recommended it to Arun Jaitley more than 5 years ago," the Congress MP said.

Also read: Rahul Gandhi slams Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget: ‘To appease...’

The Angel Tax refers to the income tax levied by the government on funding raised by unlisted companies, or startups, if their valuation exceeds the company's fair market value.

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P Chidambaram, a former finance minister in the UPA government, said he was pleased to hear her announcement on the angle tax. However, he said it was part of the Congress party's manifesto.

Also read: What Budget means for average taxpayers

"I was pleased to hear that the FM will abolish the Angel Tax. Congress has pleaded for the abolition for many years and most recently in the Congress Manifesto on page 31 am glad to know that the Hon'ble FM has read the Congress Manifesto LS 2024 after the election results. I am happy she has virtually adopted the Employment-linked incentive (ELI) outlined on page 30 of the Congress Manifesto. I am also happy that she has introduced the Apprenticeship scheme along with an allowance to every apprentice spelt out on page 11 of the Congress Manifesto. I wish the FM had copied some other ideas in the Congress Manifesto. I shall shortly list the missed opportunities," he wrote on X.

With inputs from ANI, PTI