Kejriwal reacts to Union Budget 2025: 'Loan waivers for billionaires ...'

Arvind Kejriwal

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal expressed his disappointment over the Budget 2025 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament on Saturday. The leader said that his suggestion to stop loan waivers for billionaires was not met in the Budget.

The leader wanted the government to end the loan waiver to the billionaires and spend the saved money on the middle class and farmers.

"I am disappointed this was not done," - Kejriwal said in a post on X, and added that a large portion of the public exchequer is spent on these waivers.

In the post, he wrote: "A large part of the country's treasury is spent on waiving off the loans of a few rich billionaires. I had demanded that it be announced in the budget that from now on, the loans of any billionaire will not be waived off. With the money saved from this

1. Middle class home loans and vehicle loans should be waived off; farmers' loans should be waived off.

2. Income tax and GST tax rates should be halved.

I am sad this was not done."

Presenting her eighth straight Budget in the Lok Sabha, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman laid out a blueprint for "next-generation" reforms, including raising the FDI limit in the insurance sector and simplification of tax laws.

In a relief to the middle class, Sitharaman exempted annual income of up to Rs 12 lakh from income tax and rejigged tax slabs as part of her Budget.