Congress leader Manish Tewari made scandalous charges on Friday, saying the Union interim budget 2019 was leaked to the media ahead of its presentation in the Lok Sabha.
Tewari raised the charges just ahead of the presentation of the budget by Fiancé Minister Piyush Goyal. Tewari took to Twitter to publish what he says are 'pointers' in the budget speech, justifying his claims.
"These pointers are being Circulated to Media people by Govt Sources. If all this or substantive amount of these proposals find reflection in the budget would it not tantamount to a BUDGET LEAK? (sic)" Tewari asked.
These pointers are being Circulated to Media people by Govt Sources . If all this or substantive amount of these proposals find reflection in the budget would it not tantamount to a BUDGET LEAK ? @RahulGandhi @AICCMedia @INCIndia @PTI_News @ndtv @IndiaTodayFLASH @MallikarjunINC pic.twitter.com/uPgAMjszNG
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) February 1, 2019
Later, Tewari repeated charges when he talked to the ANI news agency.
"Since morning, Govt sources have been sending budget pointers to media houses, now if these pointers are there in FM's speech then it tantamounts to a leak. It would be a serious issue of breach of secrecy," he said.
According to Tewari, the leaked pointers' related to sensitive tweaks in the direct tax. He said the pointers were on proposals to raise Income Tax exemption limit from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, as well as increasing the limit in income tax rebate to Rs 2.5 lakh from existing Rs 2 lakh.
