Dhanbad

Dhanbad : The response of coal city over the union budget has been average with some blaming the budget to be anti poor and some appreciating it to be balanced.

Two points of the budget is directly related to the city which is up gradation of Indian School of Mines (ISM) and the other one is privatization of coal units.

Status of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) given to ISM has been appreciated widely from all sections of the society.

Whereas Union Minister’s statement that “government is not interested in keeping coal units in its hand” has drawn strong criticism from the opposition and trade union leaders.

“Government has hinted that it would privatize the coal units which is an anti labour decision” said senior congress leader Neeraj Singh.

District President of Dhanbad congress Brajendra Pratap Singh, terming the budget pro industrialist said that the middle class is going to suffer due to price rise.

Service tax has been raised from 12 percent to 14.28 percent. This would apply on all the service be it hospital or hotel.

The business community of the coal city is pretty satisfied and appreciates the budget to be balanced.

However a section of businessmen were not happy as there have not been any changes in the slab of income tax.

Another reason for dissatisfaction on the budget is long awaited Goods & Services Tax (GST) which has not been introduced in this budget.