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Opposition dubs budget ‘dhan wapsi’ programme

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge speaks in the Lok Sabha during the budget session on Friday.

The Opposition on Saturday slammed as “hollow and plain” the Bharatiya Janata Party’s first full-year Union Budget, saying it lacked vision and alleged that it was “repayment” by the BJP government to the rich and the corporates.

“The budget is only for big corporates and industries. It is not a pro-poor budget. This budget is a repayment by the BJP government to the rich and corporates who had supported them during Lok Sabha polls. The budget is all about promises,” Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said.

While Jyotiraditya Scindia termed the budget “plain and hollow”, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described the budget as “dhan wapsi” programme. “You [BJP] had taken in elections. You are paying back,” Mr. Ramesh alleged.

Criticising the budget for failing to provide “achche din” to poor, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said, “Budget is aimed at helping corporates. It has been made keeping in mind only the rich and big capitalists. It is not in the interests of the common man.”

Giving 2 out of 10 for the budget, Biju Janata Dal leader in Lok Sabha B. Mahtab, said it was very disappointing as it did not do much for farmers but significantly, his views were contradicted by his party colleague Jay Panda, who termed the budget as “big bang”, which will “encourage the economy and boost the prospects of industry and manufacturing”.

The Union budget for the financial year 2015-16 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is a big disappointment for the poor and the middle class people. The budget offers no personal taxation relief to tax payers. There is no announcement regarding the steps taken for the recovery of the economy. The statistics provided by the NSO on Friday which is based on revised parameters set out by the organisation cannot be believed.

The main highlights in income tax is as follows.

a) Abolition of wealth tax

b) Corporate tax to come down from 30% to 25% over the next 3 year period.

c) Transfer pricing requirement for corporate assesses the limit increased from Rs.5 crore to Rs.20 crore which will bring down the work load of income tax officers.

d) Mediclaim policy limit increased from Rs.15,000 to Rs.25,000 (Rs.30,000 for Senior Citizen) u/sec 80 D

e) Pension fund exemption increase from Rs.1,00,000 to Rs.1,5,0000 u/sec 80CCD ( Savings based )

f) Under Sec 10 Conveyance allowance monthly increased from Rs.800 to Rs.1,600 which will help salaried tax payers.

The disadvantages to common man are increase in excise duty and service tax from 12.36% to 14.42% which will increase the price line . The proposed increase in indirect taxes is inflationary. The Prime Minister has not bothered to implement his promise in his election manifesto where it was mentioned that the individual income tax limit will be increased to Rs.5,00,000. The Budget presented is similar to the one presented by the previous UPA regime . The influence of World Bank, WTO etc., is prevalent in the Budget proposal to stream line subsidies and reduce the coverage of people who are below the poverty line .

The Budget is a very balanced approach. Seems to be a “get the engine started” kind of Budget. There seems to be an approach to living within means.

Corporate tax reduction roadmap is a very healthy and welcome step making up for expectations in minimum alternate tax. The SEZ sector will be disappointed though. We did not see much emphasis or investments in employability.

With emphasis on Make in India and Smart City development, there should have been additional investments in the training and human resource development. Overall a good Budget to solidify foundations of growth.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday described the budget as “progressive” and “pragmatic” and said it will re-ignite growth while assuring foreign investors about stable, predictable and fair tax system.

“Union budget 2015 is a budget with a clear vision. It is a budget that is progressive, positive, practical, pragmatic & prudent,” Modi tweeted.

The budget will “further reignite our growth engine, signalling the dawn of a prosperous future”, he added.

He said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley must be congratulated for “this pro—poor, pro—growth, pro—middle class, pro—youth & paradigm shifting budget."

Modi said the budget has a distinct focus on farmers, youth, poor and neo—middle class and “delivers on growth, equity and job creation“.

Contending that the budget is investment friendly, the Prime Minister said it “removes all doubts on tax issues” and “assures investors that we have a stable, predictable and fair tax system.”

He said Jaitley had laid down goals to be achieved by 2022 which include housing for all, jobs, health, education and total electrification.

Modi also appreciated Jaitley for “doing an excellent job in respecting aspirations of the states and at the same time delivering on national priorities.”

He said the budget also indicates the government’s commitment to ensure that development of eastern and northeastern parts of India gets an impetus and drives future growth.

The Prime Minister said “success” of Jan Dhan Yojana is “gladdening” and “Building on that, key schemes are announced that will comprehensively transform lives of the poor.”

In this context, he referred to new schemes like Suraksha Bima Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana, Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Vidya Lakshmi Karyakram, saying they mark “a shift from Jan Dhan to Jan Kalyan“.

He said Atal Innovation Mission and SETU “underline our commitment to enable innovation, entrepreneurship and start—ups to grow & shine in India.”

India Inc calls budget visionary, cheers corporate tax cut

India Inc on Saturday cheered the roadmap for lowering corporate taxation, abolition of wealth tax and steps to check black money menace, while calling the Union Budget a “visionary” document.

“I think it is a balanced budget. I feel the Finance Minister has tried to simplify a lot of things like laying a roadmap for corporate taxation. He has also taken wealth tax off the table. So, I think the budget has led to ease of doing business in the country,” Vice-Chairman and MD, Bharti Enterprises, Rajan Bharti Mittal said.

“It is a positive and growth-oriented budget and we think it will give a kick start to the philosophy the Finance Minister laid down of economic growth and job creation. We really appreciate the strong focus on curbing black money in terms of ensuring that wealth outside has to be declared, it has to become an integral part of the Indian economy,” CII President Ajay Shriram said.

“I would give it (budget) 9 out of 10. It is a very positive budget, which encourages growth and integrity. I am very happy about the stringent provision relating to 10-year jail term for black money holders,” Bajaj Auto Ltd Chairman Rahul Bajaj said.

“We were certain that will be getting a visionary budget and that is how it has been. He (Arun Jaitley) has laid a very clear roadmap and the roadmap is showing movement upwards for development of economy as well as the growth of GDP. He has done some very good moves one of them being reduction in corporate tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent,” FICCI President Jyotsna Suri said.

Hero MotoCorp, Jt. Managing Director, Sunil Kant Munjal said: “It is hard to find fault with what he (Jaitley) has done. There are many positive moves, some big ones and some small ones. Overall, the cumulative effect will be pretty profound on the economy.

“Removing wealth tax is a very logical direction. The 2 per cent increase in surcharge is fine and people earning above Rs 1 crore can pay,” Mr. Shriram said.

Is the budget women-friendly?

In one of his first tweets post Budget, the PM said: “FM @arunjaitley must be congratulated for this pro-poor, pro-growth, pro-middle class, pro-youth & paradigm shifting Budget”.

FM @arunjaitley must be congratulated for this pro-poor, pro-growth, pro-middle class, pro-youth & paradigm shifting Budget.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 28, 2015

But might I add? And not exactly a pro-women Budget. One half of the sky completely ignored at first look. In fact, the word ‘Women’ in the Finance Minister’s speech appeared just twice. Honestly, I expected more from Mr Modi. After winning with such a whopping margin, I thought his Budget would give more cause for cheer to small entrepreneurs like me. And I am not even beginning to rant about special concessions for women-led businesses.

Service tax

Service Tax to be increased to 14% - one of the biggest impediments to cash flow for small businesses is the requirement of paying Service Tax in advance even before the payment is collected from the customer. Crippling as it is now, this will be further worsened by the additional 1.6%. If the same could have been differentially implemented on a slab rate, it could have encouraged small business owners. Not to mention women-owned or women-led businesses which suffer from the classic lack of independent funding. Or the fact that with all services becoming dearer (telecom for instance) the sheer cost of doing business goes up?

IT hubs

World-class IT Hubs to be created to increase employment and growth – yes, but how do we encourage one half of the population that can be employed there? Any special grants for infrastructure relating to women’s careers? Nothing.

EPF

EPF to become optional – well, one manner in which savings is forced upon the low-to-mid SEC is via EPF. Why must it become optional? Could it be to increase spending by the younger generation of employees who have always traditionally disliked EPF? In the case of women, EPF is one of the key savings tools.

Corporate tax

Corporate Tax to be decreased to 25% - yes, but how does this benefit many women led businesses which are non-corporate? Which still continue to be sole-proprietorship enterprises? No slack in tax for such individual owned/ women owned small businesses.

Nirbhaya fund

Rs. 1000 crore allotted to Nirbhaya Fund – Good news, definitely. Will wait to see how this translates into action.

Absolutely nothing on skill-building or re-employment of women. Likewise, zero on infrastructure for increasing women’s workforce participation. Our PM could have taken a leaf out of his friend, the Japanese Premier, Mr. Shinsho Abe’s call to action for attracting mothers on career break to the workforce by providing flexibility. How is this done? The flexibility is encouraged by having organisations claim a tax rebate on employing women who return to the workforce. And with millions of returning mothers in India, this has the potential of adding an approximate increase of Rs. 15,000 crores to the economy. And fuel the aspirations of educated, ambitious women who have not obtained the enabling ecosystem that they deserve. Hope the dreams of one half of India’s talent pool will translate into reality soon.

Nothing for us in budget, rues farmers’ body

Farmers leaders on Saturday criticised the Union Budget saying Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has “failed to give the much-needed healing touch” to the agriculture fraternity.

“There is no announcement to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pre-poll promise of farm loan waivers and giving minimum support prices as per a proposed formula of investment plus 50 percent returns...,” Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti President Kishore Tiwari said.

Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana President and MP Raju Shetti flayed the budget saying it had nothing for the farmers whose high hopes have been dashed.

“Where are the promised ‘achhe din’ for the farm community... this budget is very disappointing,” Mr. Shetti said.

Mr. Tiwari reiterated that the BJP’s pre-election promises are turning out to be kisan jumlas (empty poll promises) as there is no budgetary provision or plans to address the acute agrarian crisis with focus on credits, cost and crop pricing issues or measures to stop farmers suicides.

“More so since this year, Maharashtra has officially declared that 23,811 of 39,453, or 60 percent villages in the State, face the severest drought of the century, hitting more than 90 lakh farmers... The ruling NDA has sidelined the rural and agrarian crisis from its priority list, worsening the already bad conditions,” Mr. Tiwari said.

Manmohan says budget lacks clear roadmap

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the budget reflected lot of “good intentions” of the NDA government but it lacked any clear roadmap to achieve the goals.

Dr. Singh said the Modi dispensation did not lay out any framework to implement various initiatives announced in the budget.

“My worry about the budget is that it has good intentions but it does not have an adequate roadmap and framework to implement the initiatives,” he said.

He said though lot of funds have been established there was no concrete direction to convert them to solid action plan.