New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley Saturday applaudedthe first budget of Modi government 2.0, calling it a policy document whichwill expand India’s growth story in the next five years. “This will be theIndia of 2024,” said the former Finance Minister in a long Facebook post. “TheBudget presented by FM, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, is a policy document for themedium term. It expands the road map on which the Prime Minister has built upIndia’s growth story from 2014-19. The striking part of this period was thatfor a 5 year average, India grew by 7.3%,” he added.The budget provides apolitical direction for an aspirational India, with the economically weakersections getting the basic amenities of life, said Jaitley.

Praising the tax incentive provided to buyers of affordablehouses, Jaitley says, “A major tax incentive has been given to those who borrowto buy affordable houses. This move will not merely help the system to utilisethe unsold stock of affordable houses but will also be instrumental ininjecting liquidity into the real estate market.”.He also defended the exciseduty on petrol and diesel that saw fuel prices shooting up on Saturday acrossthe country. “In the last two years though the crude oil prices hardened yetduties had been cut by the Central Government on at least two occasions in amajor way. It is the softening of the crude oil prices which has persuaded theGovt. to raise the excise duty on petrol & diesel marginally.This moneygoes into an infrastructure fund.” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamanpresented the Union Budget 2019-20 speech where she stated that the Indianeconomy will become a three trillion dollar economy in 2019 and under PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's vision, it will grow to a five trillion dollar economyby 2024-25.