People will feel confident to spend more

It was a good Budget. Clearly, it had a lot of political objectives owing to the impending general elections. Having said that, some of the good points I noticed was the steps taken for farmers. The government is also encouraging animal husbandry and fisheries through interest subvention on loans.

This is welcome because I believe it is important to address farmers in different segments. The effort to give relief to small and medium entrepreneurs is also welcome. This will help the sector. The fiscal deficit has also been reasonably contained at 3.4 per cent.

That is good. There is clearly an effort to be inclusive and address various stakeholders – farmers, entrepreneurs, individual tax payers, consumers.

The announcements, for instance, on personal taxation, especially for the middle and lower middle-class, are good.

No income tax for those earning up to ~5 lakh per annum will, to my mind, be a key relief. Plus, the increase in standard deduction, increasing the exemption on interest income coming from fixed deposits in banks and post offices by ~40,000 is also key.

There are many people who invest in these instruments including senior citizens. I welcome all these efforts.

Also, the sum total of all these announcements will be that people will feel confident to spend more.

This will aid consumption and companies in FMCG and agri will reap the benefits, at least for the next four to five months, till the final budget by the new government is announced.