After the hype of the Budget presentation has settled down, brokerages, rating agencies and economists provided a more sober assessment of the announcements today. After going through the fine print, many of them have provided what they consider the shortcomings of this Budget.

HDFC Securities said in a note this morning that “there was no talk of improving efficiencies of the PSUs or taking strong steps like re-organising PSU monoliths like Coal India.There is a large investor population who have bought these stocks in the current run up. They will feel let down.

Second, there is no talk of strategic disinvestment. While the disinvestment target itself has been raised to Rs 63,000 crore, this will not cheer the markets. Strategic disinvestment of even a smaller amount would have cheered the markets much more as it would have improved the valuations of all PSUs. Third, there was no talk of a holding company structure for the PSU banks to take care of their capital requirements. The PSU banks need huge capital to bolster their capital base. But because of this the asset reconstruction companies will see business flowing to heir door steps, without their having to move an inch. The banks will have to sell their stressed assets to raise capital.”

Summing up its views, it said, “At the end of the day, the feeling that one gets is that this budget is nowhere near the confidence generating assumptions which investors had grown in their minds. There is no out of the box thinking here... There is no need to feel jittery or too excited about the Budget. This is an event which is now in the rearview mirror.”

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