Untaxed by the rich tax

How did the, well, super rich react to the surcharge on incomes above Rs 1 crore that Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced in the Budget? Sad faces, dropped shoulders? No way, if the reactions of Indian industrialists assembled at the Confederation of Indian Industry's annual Budget gathering at India Habitat Centre were anything to go by. Four of them, huddled in front of one of the giant screens telecasting the event, exchanged smiling glances and shrugs when the tax was announced. "Expected," mouthed the head of a two-wheeler major to another who heads a health and financial conglomerate. So, for once, when corporate chiefs downplayed the so-called super-rich tax in their post-Budget reactions, they were not play-acting.