NEW DELHI: Till now the daily wage labourer who was forced to forego his earnings or the hassled homemaker who stood in the ATM queue drew comfort from the belief that the rich was suffering. Now, the junior staff in workplaces can rejoice at the thought that their bosses in cold cubicles will have to cough up more tax If demonetisation had brought to the fore the contrast between the haves and have-nots, the Budget has only reaffirmed the differences between the haves and the better-offs. The war against the rich – those earning more than a crore a year – which began a year ago continues with a more conservative definition of who’s rich. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is waging a war against ill-gotten wealth by banning notes, his finance minister is narrowing the battle to tax anyone who earns more than Rs 50 lakh a year.Mr Jaitley claims he would make more people pay tax because so many of them escape the taxman today. However, what he proposed in the Budget is to make people who pay the most tax fork out a little more. Anyone with a salary of Rs 50lakh or below would now pay an annual tax of Rs13,12,500 – about Rs12,500 less. But someone with a yearly salary of Rs 60 lakh will have to pay tax of Rs17,73,750 – roughly Rs1.5 lakh extra.There is no overtly populist scheme in the Budget. Yet, it’s political. Post the demonetisation cash crunch, lowering corporate tax would have sent out a wrong signal before crucial state elections.Understandably, Mr Jaitley avoided it, though he did promise a rationalisation of corporate tax in 2016. However, his decision to relax the rules on Minimum Alternate Tax would benefit power and road construction companies.The FM warns that those who deposited unexplained cash will not have the last laugh. We will have to wait to find out whether the ban on cash deals above Rs 3 lakh would cast the tax net wider.It’s a Budget that once again tries to drive home the message that the men in Delhi does not represent a “suit boot ki Sarkar” but whose hearts go out for the middle and lower income strata. For instance, promoters of business houses who hold their shares through private trusts will have to pay 10% tax on the dividend they receive from the companies. Till now they were spared. Last year the FM had imposed 10% tax on dividend of over Rs 10 lakh earned by individuals, HUFs and firms. This year it takes a step forward to cover trusts.On the other hand, Mr Jaitley tries to satisfy constituencies that matter without toppling the apple cart: by keeping tax on stock market gains untouched it has managed not to put off traders and investors who had feared a tax on long-term capital gains and a higher STT; reining in fiscal deficit will reassure rating agencies and foreign portfolio investors in equities and bonds; millions of low and middle income household will find their disposable income rising Rs 1200 a month; and countless families in smaller towns can dream of owning a home while small builders, hit by demonetisation, will get a tax relief.If Demonetisation was Mr Modi’s big political gamble, the Budget comes across like a safe bet.