NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — Several Indian ministers told Sputnik on Saturday that the country's budget for the 2015-2016 period presented on Saturday in the country's parliament would bridge the divide between the poor and the rich.
Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari told Sputnik that the budget would certainly help the poor "to uplift their lives."
However, former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said that despite government's claims that the budget aimed to help the poor population in India, it was in essence "a corporate budget," while initiatives to help the poor remained solely on paper.
The total expenditure was estimated to be 17 trillion rupees ($288 billion). The fiscal deficit is expected to be 3.9 percent of India's GDP, while the revenue deficit will be 2.8 percent of the GDP.