A good Budget

The editorial and other analyses (February 2) are incisive. The government must be complimented for presenting a good Budget. Thankfully there are no sops/populist measures in spite of the approaching State polls. Additionally the Budget is realistic in its numbers rather than ‘promise much and deliver less’.

One reformist area left out is broadening the Direct Tax base. It is time that rich agriculturalists contribute to the tax kitty. Additionally, there is a tendency for many non-agriculturists to acquire some agri land and then pass off ill-gotten wealth as agri-income; in the process ‘laundering’ and evading tax. A person having other income like salary or business shall pay tax on his agri income at regular rates.

V Vijaykumar

Pune

Capex push

The hallmark of this year's Budget is the big push to capex. It is being touted as a magic wand which shall be panacea to all economic ills of the society including joblessness. But the past track record of the government inspires little confidence.

The most noteworthy feature of every Budget is that the government goes into slumber after presenting it and at the end of the fiscal year gears up to prepare a list of flimsy excuses for its failures. Even if the government accomplishes a fraction of what is articulated it shall be praiseworthy. By all accounts the Budget more than often is a pie in the sky. It is facetious to take it seriously.

Deepak Singhal

Noida

Growth focus

This is with reference to the editorial (February 2), although the Budget is not a populist one, it has definitely got an agenda for long-term growth which is necessary for a developing economy like India..

Lack of infrastructure investment has been the bane of our economy. Right investments with investment-friendly policies, removing the bottlenecks, and red-tapism will go hand in hand with economic development and prosperity.

Hence the government should push through all the infrastructure projects which are in a semi-completion state or which are in the pipeline. Another cause for poor economic growth is that most of our economic decisions are taken with political angles and with an eye on elections.

The country is crying for economic reforms, investment-friendly policies, and strong leadership which can push economic reforms and economic growth. Hence, from a long-term growth angle, the Budget is good and Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman deserves applause for the visionary Budget.

Veena Shenoy

Thane

Salaried class ignored

This refers to your editorial “Growth push” (February 2). While the Budget is growth oriented with an eye on long-term development with capex set to grow at about 25 per cent, it has nothing to offer to the salaried class when the pandemic had hit this section leading to job loss, pay cuts etc. The interests of retired people too were neglected with few avenues for investments like bank deposits giving negative returns adjusted for inflation. The volatility of stock market is quite unsettling.

The plethora of sops given to corporates, increase in the limit of ECLGS cover to MSME sector, focus on infrastructural development, tax on profit of cryptos @ 30 per cent etc. are positive steps. But for India growth story to sustain in the long run, the middle class who form the largest chunk of our population should have been given some relief in terms of tax breaks, increase in basic exemption limit, 80C deductions etc.

With the budget focussing on long-term growth, job creation will only will pick up with a lag. The government should have put more money in the hands of the common man to give a fillip to private investments. Overall the Budget will be construed as a story of missed opportunities depriving equitable growth to all sections of society.

Srinivasan Velamur

Chennai

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