Indore:
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has demanded that provision should be made in the Union budget to provide cheap health and education to the middle class, who pay their taxes honestly.
Mahajan placed his demand before Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a letter on Tuesday.
Mahajan mentioned that so far we have seen that schemes and provisions are made only for people coming from poor, extremely poor, weaker, minority, schedule caste and schedule tribe sections etc. But while preparing the welfare measures, a section of real tax payers are always left behind - the middle class.
These are people from lower or middle-class professionals like shop keepers, professionals, doctors, advocates, professors and those from the service sector. These people are still deprived from the benefits from Aayushman Bharat scheme.
Mahajan suggested that a percentage of tax paid by middle-class should be kept aside for them to compensate for expenditure incurred for treatment of serious illness or operation. Similarly, there should be some scheme to provide education grant, based on the tax paid.
