TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said the NDA government’s efforts have helped to improve farmers’ economic condition and refuted the criticism that the Rs 6,000 annual income support to them was meagre.
The Minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted an honest budget. So the fiscal deficit target was marginally raised to 3.4 per cent though the target could have mentioned as 3.3 per cent.
Replying to the discussions on the Interim Budget which was later passed by voice vote, he said the amount allocated for farmers in the 2019 Budget was not small and provided constant annual income support.
“About 12 crore farmers getting Rs 6,000 each year which translates into Rs 7.5 lakh crore in a span of 10 years is not small by any means,” he said, adding that the government had provided earlier higher MSP for 22 crops and that there had been marked a improvement in the condition of farmers with steps like Ayushman Bharat.