The Hindu Business Line : An inclusive, election budget

Monisha Adwani, Managing Director, EmmayHR: This is an out-and-out Congress budget. It has election prep written all over it. It also demonstrates economic prudence and caution. By focusing on relief and development to the agriculture sector, a clear message is being sent – the year of the Kissan is back. Also, if a cross-section of the Budget were to be analysed, the clear beneficiary is the common man, who will find it easier to come by medical relief and support, in a small or hybrid car that he will own and pay off loans that he received on the back of the subsidised education he received, thanks to the Budget presented by this government.

It is interesting to see pharmaceutical and healthcare receive impetus in the form of excise duty relief and incentive to research.

Overall, am personally pleased to see a budget assuming accountability towards the manufacturing sector. We have spent a decade bolstering the service sector and rightly so. It has yielded rich dividends in contributing to the GDP and increasing employment opportunities. However, the manufacturing sector is the foundation of our economy, as much as agriculture, and it deserves to renewed incentive to grow to competitive levels. While I expect the suggested subsidies to increase employment, I would have expected the education budget to be aimed towards cultivating talent for this sector to be more vocalised, than is the case. Creation of jobs needs to be balanced with development of talent.

There is no pathbreaking change in income tax. On indirect and corporate tax, I’m relieved that there haven’t been incremental ambitions. On fringe-benefits, I maintain that the Finance Minister needs to reflect on what tools he equips employers to retain workforces, which will aid medium and long-term value and wealth creation for the economy. FBT is a contrary action that deters employers for disbursing traditionally lock-in benefits for fear of impact.”

Rama Subramaniam, Chairman, BioPure Health Care: The Finance Minister has clearly injected vote bank politics into the Budget. He has gone overboard to please farmers and the middle-class alike and generally remained neutral to the corporate sector. However, this strategy has a positive spillover for specific sectors such as banks, automobiles, consumer durables and sectors linked to agriculture.

Focus on health, education and power generation along with focus on green technology is laudable; additional disposable income coupled with reduction in excise duty will spur growth. Women and senior citizens have found a well-deserved place in the budget. Short-term capital gain tax increase will be a damper for the capital markets in the near term.

Latha Rajan, Director – HR, Ma Foi Management Consultants: It is an inclusive budget. It has tried to address many different communities – farmers, the salaried, women, senior citizens, children, students, workers from the unorganised sector and women in rural areas. The focus has been on education, healthcare and infrastructure.

Officegoers will find the increase in the exemption limit and the widening of the slab rates to a large extent. For employees earning more than Rs 5 lakhs as salary, almost an amount of Rs 45,000 can be saved.

Crèche facilities, sponsorship of an employee-sportsperson, organising sports events for employees and guest houses have been excluded from the purview of the fringe benefit tax. The loan waiver for the farmers and the impact of the pay commission may have an adverse impact on inflation. This may lead to an increase in prices which will affect the common man.

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