Post-Budget Poll: What Does The Common Man Feel?

Exit polls conducted by the CVoter Foundation after the Union Budget 2015 was presented reflect that 49% of people are satisfied with this budget.

This nationwide poll was conducted on February 28, interviewing 2,236 randomly selected people across all demographics. "The common man does not really think that the prices will go down. The middle class of India does not feel this budget will make life comfortable for them," said Yashwant Deshmukh, Managing Director and Editor of CVoter Foundation.

"This is the first reaction after the budget. This is not very different from the reaction that we have seen even after UPA government's budget. People were looking forward to some kind of relaxation in the tax slabs or some measures to curtail prices rise. While the budget remains an intellectually-stimulating exercise for economists and industry experts, we need to keep in mind how the common man in India understands it. Inflation, corruption and job security are the main issues that the people focus on," he added.

A big majority (52%) of the respondents felt that this budget will not bring down prices at all while only 12% believed that inflation may be checked to a certain extent. 60% of them asserted that this budget will push up their monthly expenses where as 21% of them said that it would help them save more.

Overall, 49% of the people polled said that they were satisfied with the budget. "This is the first reaction immediately after the budget was presented.It may probably change once the long-term impact of this budget sinks in," Deshmukh said.

"People may be disappointed, but there is a pragmatism that the economy, at large, might do well. There is a certain hope that incomes and job opportunities will increase." 50% of the respondents said that even though day-to-day expenses will go up, they will remain manageable while 35% felt that expenses will become difficult to manage.

According to the post-budget poll, industry experts have rated it at 8.8 while the common man has given Budget 2015 a rating of 6.3.