Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on Friday described the 2003-2004 budget as 'inspiring, exhilarating and realistic'.

He said the budget, presented by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh in Parliament, has greatly enhanced the credibility of the National Democratic Alliance government.

In his first official reaction on the budget, Advani said he had anticipated similar comments by the opposition as in the case of Railway Budget, which they described as an 'election budget'.

Advani said the budget is realistic without being populist in any way and showed the government's clear concern for mobilisation of resources. The budget has created confidence in the country about the 'economic potential that the country possesses' and also takes into consideration the needs of the agriculture sector and the small scale, which had not been done before.

The opposition came down strongly describing it as an 'election budget, anti-farmer and anti-poor'.

Samajwadi party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, while describing it as Ghoshna budget which was Kisan virodhi, said, "Stress has been taken to demonstrate that it is not harsh budget, but the fact is that they have imposed too many harsh measures indirectly."

His party colleague Amar Singh described it as a 'pro-rich and a cosmetic budget presented with an eye on elections'. He said it had targeted less of the business and more of the votes while nothing had been done for the working class.

Lok Janshakti's Ram Vilas Paswan also described it as an election budget, adding that he found nothing special in it. Recalling the prime minister's announcement that employment would be provided to one crore people, Paswan wanted to know where is the room in this budget for generating such employment. He also said the working class will suffer the most from this budget.

BJP's Rajnath Singh described it as a budget for all sections of the society and claimed that it had 'all the inputs of his committee' that was formed to make suggestions to the government on the recommendations made by the Kelkar committee.

"Concern has been shown for all section of the people specially the one below the poverty line, but through a prism that would make India prosperous," Singh said.

Shivraj Patil of the Congress said, "We think that this is an election budget, but what has been provided is not going to help in the long terms. It speaks of relief to certain section of the industry, which is good. But they have given tax relief in some areas, which makes us feel it is a budget geared more towards the election in 2004. It is a sort of beat and track budget in which nothing in specific terms has been said to even help the sugar industry."

Former prime minister Deve Gowda said that the farmers have been 'totally destroyed' as there is nothing for them in this budget.

Onkar Singh in New Delhi adds:

Communist Party India (Marxist) leader Somnath Chatterjee described the budget as anti people and said the finance minister has sought to hit the private sector employees by reducing the interest rates of the public provident fund.

Speaking to rediff.com he said the finance minister has made some cosmetic changes to please the middle class and the upper middle class families.

"This budget is anti-people. It will not restructure the Indian economy, which is in shambles. The finance minister has not addressed major issues like agriculture and unemployment. The prime minister in his speech had promised one crore jobs for the unemployed youth but not a word was mentioned about it in the union budget," he said.

He rejected the BJP's claim that the budget was growth oriented. "Handing over all the sectors in the infrastructure to the private sector does not mean there would be a rapid growth. This means that the people who travel by newly laid roads would have to pay toll tax everywhere. There are 28 such roads coming up, so you can imagine the plight of the poor," he said.

"By merely giving some tax benefits to the salaried class employees here and there, and reducing the prices of the cars, air conditioners and other utility items for the middle class does not mean that he has done something unique. Majority of our population still lives below the poverty line and it is those people who eventually matter to us," he added.

He said that he was deeply disappointed with Jaswant Singh as the finance minister.

With inputs from UNI