Earnings from income tax are not used for infrastructure, but for paying interests of Modi govt's debt: TMC MP Saket Gokhale

Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Wednesday said in a post on social media platform X that the Modi government uses most of its earnings from the income tax paid by common citizens to pay interest on its debts, and not for infrastructure or developmental projects.

In his tweet, Gokhale said, "Of total Govt revenues, 19% comes from Income Tax", adding, "The largest revenue source is BORROWING i.e. debt".

19 per cent of the government's total earnings come from Income Tax while 19 per cent of it's expenditures go into paying interests on debts. That does not mean that the exact figures in the two cases is the same, taking into account fiscal deficit.

Credit: DH Illustration

Gokhale then claims, "Essentially, not a single penny of the income tax paid by the hard-working middle-class is going towards any infrastructure, help for the poor, or even development work."

The Rajya Sabha MP also highlighted the fact that "revenue from personal income tax is 19% which is HIGHER than revenue from corporate taxes which is 17%."

"The Indian middle-class is paying more money in income taxes than large corporations," Gokhale further added.

"And we're not even counting the bloodsucking GST & other taxes that every person has to pay in addition to income tax. It is a SHAME that the middle-class is being bled dry by the Modi Govt merely to pay interest on Govt's loans," his post also read.

"It is a matter of plain cruelty that the hardworking middle-class citizens of our country are being looted by the Modi Govt without getting absolutely ANYTHING in return," the TMC MP said in his post.

In the Union Budget presented on Tuesday, the Budget Estimate (BE) for total expenditure for FY25 has been raised to Rs 48.2 lakh crore from Rs 47.6 lakh crore in the interim Budget. All of this increase has come in administrative expenditure, as the outlay for infrastructure (capital expenditure) is unchanged at Rs 11.11 lakh crore.

The net tax revenue target for the year has come down slightly, compared to the interim Budget. However, BE for non-tax revenue has risen sharply, to Rs 5.46 lakh crore, from Rs 3.99 lakh crore in the interim Budget. This is primarily on the back of a record Rs 2.11 lakh-crore dividend, received from the Reserve Bank of India.

With DHNS inputs