Bengaluru, Feb 16 (IANS): Union Minister for Railways, Information and Broadcasting, Electronics, and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said on Saturday that while presenting the budget Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman have always kept lower and middle-income groups at the core of thinking.

“The entire thing will be built upon reforms, reforms and reforms. The next phase of growth will be based on reforms. Here, what we mean is our Prime Minister says we should have enough government and we should not have burdensome governance. The governance has to be very smooth. Industries should not face compliance burden,” the Union Minister claimed while speaking at a press conference at the BJP state headquarters Jagannath Bhavan.

The minister further said that the NDA government got a historic mandate after 60 years our Prime Minister was elected for the third time.

“We got the historic third mandate only due to the good work. The lives of the people have changed across the country. All this was done under the leadership of PM Modi,” the minister said.

He claimed that people tell him that the work undertaken under PM Modi was not done in the last 60 years.

“This vision encompasses two major population groups. In the lives of middle-class groups, there is a lot of change because of infrastructure work, metro services everywhere, new airports, and 390 universities constructed, new IITs, IIMs. The major demand was the tax rate. A major decision was taken to ensure no tax was imposed till Rs 12 lakh annual income. If you go back to 2014, our country was in a bad shape, where despite talent, technical capability, entrepreneurship, our country was considered as fragile five economies which can break any time,” he pointed out.

He said that however after PM Modi took over in 2014, he (PM Modi) started to build the banking sector which has now become one of the most healthy sectors in the world. Further housing sector was cleaned up and new acts were passed. Non-Performing Assets (NPA) were cleaned and large infrastructure projects were taken up. Everywhere highway and railway projects have started to come up and also new airports have come up.

“If you look at the entire process, our Prime Minister’s thinking is public investment in social, digital and physical infrastructure. Just go back 10 years, call drop was the biggest issue. Getting the connection was difficult. Today, we are among the best 5G networks in the world. More than Europe, better than the US. Lowest rates are offered,” he said.

He added that the social infrastructures was given an equal weightage and 390 new universities were created in 10 years.

“IITs, IIMS, and AIIMSs have doubled. Medical colleges increased. The thinking behind all this is to build institutions, get the country on a good foundation and make sure our country is working for the good of the people. Our GDP today is of about Rs 330 lakh crore and we are growing at a 10 per cent nominal rate. By next year we will be around Rs 356 lakh crore. It’s a large size economy now. Already fifth largest we know, very soon it will become fourth largest, depending upon the level of foreign exchange rates and depending on whatever is happening in the world today,” he informed.

“Our budget today is about Rs 50 lakh crore. Our borrowing percentage of the budget is coming down. Our fiscal deficit is 4.8 per cent, coming down to 4.4 per cent. When you compare it to developed countries it is 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent. We are in a healthy position. It is possible because of prudent thinking over 10 years,” he said.

The railway budget allocation for Karnataka has been increased nine times from the UPA period, which was Rs 845 crore per annum. From there it has come to Rs 7,564 crores. Total investments in railway projects are Rs 51,479 crore in Karnataka, he stated.

The government has prioritized the needs of low- and middle-income families. The exemption of income tax for those earning up to Rs12 lakh annually is a major gift for salaried individuals. Ten years ago, the country’s total capital investment was around Rs 2.5 lakh crore; today, it has increased to Rs 15 lakh crore.