Any sudden and sharp fiscal consolidation steps announced could have throttled the nascent and uneven recovery of the Indian Economy. Let’s hope the execution is at par with the intentions and thrust of an excellent budget." Like always the challenge is in execution.
From a capital market perspective a neutral budget. The divestment target at 65000 crores should be easily achievable. Like the previous budget, the FM has been conservative on the tax receipts and very realistic on the overall fiscal deficit. Could the FM have done more by way of direct relief to the marginal taxpayer – possibly yes. Respect and Trust for the Tax Payer is clearly evident in this provision. The intention to allow Income-tax Payers to revise their IT returns for 2 years post the end of the relevant assessment year to account for understated income should go a long way in increased compliance and reduced litigation. The thrust on new generation tools and technologies to take the country forward was pretty evident with various provisions to leverage digital technologies and drones, among others to digitize land records. The intention to have a digital rupee is a far-sighted move whose positive impact will be felt over time. The provision to tax gains on transfer of digital assets is a very pragmatic move and acknowledgment that digital assets are not going away – might as well embrace them. A key highlight of the budget is the enhanced thrust on capex rising to almost 2.9% of the GDP acknowledging the fact that the Private sector capex has still to kick in. Despite the temptation to go populist with so many state elections lined up – the FM stuck to the script without playing to the gallery.
"FM’s speech was the shortest of all her budget speeches and possibly with the maximum impact.