Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner, KPMG: The Union Budget is sharply focused on a few key themes, which were already declared by the Finance Minister earlier. The Budget focused on an efficient and effective government, rationalisation of taxation, heavy focus on rural with funds for de-stressing the rural economy, soft and hard infrastructure with over Rs 2.2 trillion for combined rail, road, airports and waterways, focus on human resource development and de-stressing of the financial systems, including banks. It is also a welcome step to move from a fixed fiscal deficit target to a range which will provide the government the necessary fiscal headspace. Overall the budget appears to focus on building the fundamentals of the economy and the economic & financial institutions.
Harsh Pati Singhania, MD, JK Paper: The push for agriculture was important as we need demand creation in the sector. If irrigation, roads and food storage schemes are in good shape, farmer incomes will rise. Infrastructure will get an impetus but we will have to see how soon can we execute the roadmap.
Harshvardhan Neotia, President, FICCI: This is a good Budget but the devil lies in the detail, which we will have to look into. There are areas of concern such as the dividend distribution tax in REIT but overall the Budget is in the right direction.