“The Budget certainly gives a ‘feel-good’ feeling. My wife and I will now be able to save roughly Rs 15,000 of tax per year. This means a great deal for a middle class family like ours,” said M P Krishna Kumar, a government employee. He is elated over the tax exemption being raised to Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1.8 lakh for men and women, respectively.

Apart from tax savings, reduction in the prices of cars has doubled the joy for the Kumars. “The increase in tax rebate and increase in the slabs coupled with the reduced prices of cars is just a dream come true. The first thing we will do is to upgrade our Maruti 800 car, which we couldn’t do for long,” Kumar said.

The Budget has also brought good news for the senior citizens, for whom the limit of the tax rebate has been increased from 1.95 lakh to 2.25 lakh. “It is nice to know that apart from taking care of everyone else, they have considered us (senior citizens) as well in the Union Budget,” said R P Agarwal, who retired from the Animal Husbandry department in 1992. However, he did not like the idea of the excise duty being reduced for two and three wheelers from 16 per cent to 12 per cent.

Housewives seemed to be a bit disappointed with the Budget, though.