Budget 2018: The funniest Twitter reactions to Arun Jaitley’s budget 2018

Budget 2018: At the conclusion of FM Arun Jaitley's last full Union Budget from the NDA government ahead of the 2019 elections, there's a huge outcry on social media on overlooking the middle and salaried classes. And our 'ever-ebulient', constantly sarcy Twitterati soon took refuge in humour and sarcasm to keep spirits high.

Written by S Chakraborty
New Delhi | Updated: February 1, 2018 10:10 PM IST

6 min read

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Union Budget 2018: How FM Arun Jaitley’s Budget 2018 presentation unleashed a barrage of jokes on the pain of the middle and salaried classes. (Source: PTI)

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley just concluded his rather long speech presenting the last full Union Budget from the Narendra Modi-led NDA government before the 2019 general elections. The day started with a lot of buzz – online and offline – on whether this would be a populist budget, and would there be any significant announcements for the middle and salaried classes. As it happens, there is a bit of disappointment for the common man and for consumer sentiment in general as there will be no change in income tax rates. The reintroduction of standard deduction after many years of Rs 40,000 a year may not really enthuse tax payers. There is some relief in medicals bills, as the exemption on annual health insurance premiums has been increased from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000.

Going by the chatter online, the muted reaction to the budget presentation was anticipated, with people already tweeting out comments on how a majority of the common man’s concerns would be overlooked. In fact, as one of IndianExpress’ experts Harish Damodaran says, “This is a budget that has probably not pleased anyone.” Nevertheless, trust our ‘ever-ebulient’, constantly sarcy Twitterati to take refuge in humour and keep spirits high. And this year was no different.

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No sooner that Jaitley had begun his speech, the quips started coming in. And while the humour analysis is ongoing, here are some of the funniest tweets on the Finance Minister’s Union Budget presentation, thus far. The observations range from the fanciness of the Budget Briefcase to digs on the middle class being shortchanged yet again.