Sukumar Mukhopadhyay

Budget is good but not good enough to live up to the FM's promise of getting rid of "socialist baggage"

Subsidy has to be there, where there is the poor class or lower middle class, which have to be helped to make basic necessities affordable to them and also to bridge the inequality of income

The massive backlog in courts can be reduced not by just increasing the number of judges, but at the same time also reducing the intake and increasing disposal of cases

The CAG has said that invoice matching has made the system prone to input tax credit fraud

Changes made only to Customs as GST can get no tweaks in Budget, but some indications were given about improvements in procedure

For promoting export, small-scale industry, education, health care and giving subsidies for the poor and the middle class in transport, exemptions are necessary

The author's favourite theory is that black money cannot be removed by the GST

The present definition of a taxable event is simple because it does not depend on the previous concepts

The epilogue reveals the ability of a consummate author to express himself far beyond a writer of economics treatises

The reason why blatant exaggeration of evasion figures is dangerous is that it distorts the policy decision

The GST has been tried for decades in other countries, particularly in Europe. Even then such frauds are taking place there

Quality is the only area where the competitors of Walmart are able to succeed

A highly retrograde measure has been proposed in the Section 125 of the Customs Act

Officers, economists in FinMin have enough knowledge. There is no need to add few more of same breed

Restructuring means loan is spread over a longer period of time, often at current rate of interest

An estimated amount of Rs 400 crore of fake money will be eliminated.

The way GST has been done, there is as much scope of making black money as was there in the existing tariff

Finance Minister said that different items used by different segments have to be taxed differently, otherwise GST will be regressive

The principle of benefit of doubt acts in favour of revenue. It is different in the case of criminal law

The government can legally withdraw the exemptions so far as central excise and service tax are concerned