A cross-section of the people, who were spoken to by Chandigarh Newsline were resentful of the existing inflation in petrol, LPG and other goods. Asked one ruefully: "How much more would an average citizen pay - that too for such poor quality life?" Harbhajan Kaur, a housewife expressed her bitterness towards the recent hike in essential services. "Instead of providing basic services to consumers, the government is bent upon burdening the common man with high prices", she said. Harbhajan Kaur retorted, "how can the government expect a household to run on meagre salaries, a large chunk of which is sliced in taxes?"

She complained that this budget is going to drain more out of the pockets of the common man. "The irony is that the amount of money pumped into the government resources by a common man, brings nothing but more misery in this country," she said. G. C. Mohapatra, a retired professor of Archaeology commented, "this too is going to be a tough budget." He expects inflation in prices. "I don't expect any change in the personal taxes, rather only those categories will benefit, which have some political interest vested in them," Mohapatra said. Commenting on the declared Railway Budget, he said, "it is going to be nothing better for the other commodities too. I expect more burden by way of taxes".

Mani, a student of B.Ed, felt that privatisation should be encouraged in the country. "The budget this year needs to focus on saving the economy by boosting the role of the private sector." She suggested, "the basic thing to understand is that subsidies should be offered only where required", while adding, "a lot many subsidies are not required and these are only introduced due to political interests".

Mandeep Singh, a transporter, expects the budget to further bring trouble, in a country which is already facing a severe economic crunch. "Instead of reducing petrol prices, LPG prices, the budget is going to promote black marketing and hoarding." He lamented, "the government is highly inefficient in handling the available resources and tries to make more money by imposing more taxes. This year is going to no different." Suman Bhakri, a housewife complained about the high costs of drugs which are far beyond the reach of the common man. "With sky rocketing prices of medicines, how does the government expect a common man to purchase these? A commonly required antibiotic is simply out of reach," Bhakri said. She lamented that the hike in the prices of LPG and food articles is only going to worsen the hunger situation. "I hope that they give some relief this year".

Balwinder Singh, an entrepreneur said, "I wonder how they thought of increasing the prices of basic commodities, without considering the availability of basic necessities?" He said that little is expected out of this budget as like in the previous years, the brunt of high prices is going to be borne by the common man this time too.

Anita Arora, a bank employee said that there would be no tax relief this year also. "If they exercise any control on the excise duty, it might benefit the traders, otherwise, the budget is going to of little or no comfort, to the general public." She wished for a relief in the Income Tax especially for the salaried class and remarked that the budget this year is going to be hard on the general public.