DOES THE BUDGET DO ANYTHING SUBSTANTIAL TO CURB BLACK MONEY? WHAT ABOUT CUSHIONING THE IMPACT OF DEMONETISATION?
AD.K. JOSHI
Black money is difficult to measure, and what cannot be measured cannot be monitored. A better measure to look at would be efforts to improve tax compliance.
The budget aims to increase tax/GDP ratio, which means improving compliance and bringing more people within the tax net. It intends to raise the tax/GDP to 11.3 per cent in 2017-18 through a number of steps, including big data analytics.
Enhanced rural spending and some tax relief to small enterprises will cushion the impact of demonetisation
ASHIMA GOYAL
Yes, it does follow up with measures to curb black money sources such as electoral funding, rationalisation in real estate capital gains measurement. The impact of demonetisation seems to be reducing, so the cushions provided in the budget are adequate
USHA THORAT
Measures to curb political funding and investigation of cases where large deposits were made under the demonetisation scheme... there are some measures to cushion the impact [of demonetisation]. We still need more data to understand whether the increased tax revenues are commensurate with the pain.
Other areas that could have been attempted are gold, property deals and tax on large withdrawals of cash from banks
ADITI NAYAR
Limits on transactions, donations to charities and political parties in cash; measures to promote digital transactions as well as palliatives to bring more assessees within the tax net may help curb the generation of black money to some extent
N.R. BHANUMURTHY
Increase in credit allocation to agriculture and MSMEs will offer some comfort post-demonetisation. Policy measures such as restrictions on cash transactions above Rs 3 lakh, political funding reforms, implementation of GST and incentives for using digital platforms should help reduce unaccounted-for money
RAJIV KUMAR
Yes, it takes several steps—curbs on donations to charities and political parties and strong measures against deposits made illegally in banks post-demonetisation
ASHOK GULATI
Marginally. Not significantly
NAUSHAD FORBES
Demonetisation itself has been the biggest move to curb black money. Other measures included in the budget are restrictions on anonymous political funding, limits on cash payments and spread of digitalisation
SAMIRAN CHAKRABORTY
Steps taken to streamline political funding are very welcome. Regarding demonetisation, normalisation of the demand situation is more a function of new currency notes than budget-specific measures