Budget fails to meet expectations of middle class

RANCHI: With the prices of food and household items remaining largely unchanged, the Union Budget 2013 -14 was not the bearer of glad tidings for an average middle-class household. Since this class has been grappling with rising prices for the past several months, people were expecting some kind of relief from finance minister P Chidambaram. But that didn't happen.
Madhuri Devi, a homemaker said, "In the last one year, the cost of almost every commodity has gone up. I was expecting the finance minister to bring down the prices of a few essential goods so that I could save some money, but there was no relief. The good thing is that they have not increased the price of any essential commodity so my monthly budget will be more or less the same."
Increase in the price of set-top box has come as a setback for people, many of whom were anticipating some kind of a slash in price in the budget before installing them.
Manoj Paswan, a small-time businessman said, "While on the one hand, government has made it compulsory to install a set-top box to digitize the system, on the other, they are increasing the cost of set-top boxes. Had prices not been increased, switching to the digital set-top box would have cost us 30% more, and now that the price has been increased, it will cost us a bomb." He added that the government has clearly said either people accept this proposal and watch television or do not watch TV at all.
Eating out has also become expensive with service tax on air-conditioned restaurants being increased. "I used to eat out regularly with my family. But with increase in service tax, we will go out once in two weeks instead of every week," said Anupana Deb, an advocate.
The budget, however, managed to bring some smiles with the reduction in the cost of readymade garments, shoes and other leather goods. "Repeating clothes in college is considered a fashion disaster. Now that the cost of readymade garments will come down, I will be able to buy more clothes for college," said an upbeat Ashima Chaudhary, a student of St Xavier's College.
Union Budget 2013
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