A regular vote on account budget: Malvinder Mohan Singh

BS Reporters / New Delhi February 16, 2009, 18:23 IST

Malvinder Mohan Singh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories
It’s very much a regular Vote on Account Budget. There wasn’t any expectation from the industry as such. Regular areas like agriculture, social sector, education - a little mention of heathcare there , defense, job creation were the areas of focus. When you are 2-3 months from elections, they played it safe and right by not going into any significant economic policy package as such. They have announced two stimulus packages already that  address many things seeing that we dint expect much from this budget.

India is still better off than other economies. As an economy we need to focus on infrastructure, job creation and boosting domestic demand which are factors to keep the economy going.”

Subodh Bhargava, Chairman, Tata Communications
“The fact that this is an Interim Budget we did not have any expectations. But looking at the economic crisis there was an opportunity government should have availed to announce requisite  measure to enable the economy to move ahead but nothing has been addressed as all. issues like liquidity for SMEs, more cash in the hands of corporates for investments than individuals for spending could have been easily tackled without violating any proprietary. But I do believe that whatever the political constraints for not announcing it will hopefully be not the last word and there will be some measures announced by either the RBI or  the government to enable the economy to get back on track.”


Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman, Feedback Ventures
“I think Pranab Mukherjee has stuck to the constitutional proprietary and electoral etiquette in not announcing major policy decisions two months away from the elections. I appreciate what he has done. The Interim Budget is on expected lines because it is meant to be just enough to allow the government to carry on its activities for the next four months. In infrastructure. there are already many schemes. The issue is with implementation. I think currently there is a trade-off between growth and fiscal deficit, for stimulus.”

R C Bhargava, Chairman, RCB Consulting Pvt Ltd
“I am not at all disappointed from the Interim Budget. Whatever the government needed to do to revive the economy has already been done. There is no need to do it in the budget. Auto sector had started reviving after 4 per cent cut in the cenvat. In on account budgets, we do not expect policy announcements, or any significant change in policies. But the 4 per cent cenvat cut was for four months. There is no announcement seen on that. It is an area of concern. The government should have incentivised old vehicles replacement in order to create demand in the sector.”