WHAT IS THE BEST/ WORST THING ABOUT THIS BUDGET?
AD.K. JOSHI
(Did not answer)
ASHIMA GOYAL
Best: Reducing the cash donation limit for political donations to Rs 2,000 and electoral bonds
Worst: Not enough done to address growth slowdown
USHA THORAT
Best: Focus on rural and social spending Worst: No clear prospects for public sector banks
ADITI NAYAR
In addition to fiscal consolidation and infrastructure, the focus on ease of doing business is a big positive.
Compared to ICRA’s estimate that PSBs require Rs 45,000-50,000 crore of total Tier 1 capital in FY2018, the allocation of Rs 10,000 crore for bank recapitalisation appears inadequate
N.R. BHANUMURTHY
Increasing public investments in the infrastructure sector (both urban and rural), expanding rural housing, focusing on employment intensive sectors such as textile, tourism, leather, MSMEs and, most importantly, focusing on youth, are some of the best things in the budget.
While the government targets 3.2 per cent fiscal deficit, as in the past, it appears that it is again depending on Other Capital Receipts (which is mainly disinvestments). Going by past trends, achieving such high receipts is going to be near-impossible. Another is the assumption about decline in petroleum subsidy. Given that there are large expectations about higher oil prices, reduction in oil subsidy might be unrealistic
RAJIV KUMAR
Best is the ramping up of public expenditure by 24.5 per cent, worst is not raising the income level at which the 30 per cent personal income tax will apply
ASHOK GULATI
The good thing is that it addresses the problems of farmers by putting in quite a bit of money into irrigation and crop insurance (about Rs 40,000 crore together), rationalises corporate and personal income taxes for lower ends and puts big money in infrastructure.
The disappointing part is that it failed to bite the bullet in rationalising food and fertiliser subsidies that together take away some Rs 2.15 lakh crore and suffer from high inefficiency and heavy leakages
NAUSHAD FORBES
The best thing about this budget is that it maintained control on the fiscal and revenue deficits. The only thing I didn’t like in the budget was the surcharge for incomes between Rs 50 lakh and 1 crore. This seemed inconsistent with the finance minister’s welcome principle of wanting to reward the honest. The focus should be on widening the tax net, not taxing the existing net more
SAMIRAN CHAKRABORTY
The budget is a good balance between fiscal consolidation and better expenditure mix; it refrained from being too populist and supported a significant increase in capital expenditure while keeping fiscal consolidation in mind. However, more could have been done to promote job growth