Full marks for technocratic budget that lets us embrace ease of living

The remarkable bouquet of Aspirational India, economic development for all and a caring society wrapped by governance and financial system strengthening, gave me, for the first time, a sense of full satisfaction from a finance minister.

In every way, the Budget is disciplined (no runaway fiscal deficit), well targetted to provide universal basic services to an aspirational India, careful in bringing technology to bear upon all aspects of taxpayer interface with tax gatherers and intended to be directional! What a great balancing act. 

India will be the First Nation on our planet to introduce tax determination for its middle-class tax payers. Dispute resolution by paying up disputed taxes, option to choose a tax rate structure depending upon individual circumstances, are all steps in the right direction. The emphasis on use of exponential technologies to a level of sophistication little known in the world, sets our tax framework apart. When the world wakes up to digital tax as a necessity, India will be ready. 

Investments in infrastructure, the decisive steps to develop a debt market, the leveraging of our GIFT city infrastructure for setting up a bullion exchange, and the enablement of credit flows by providing targetted credit enhancements will boost the economy like nothing else! Add to this the targetted interventions for healthcare, education( online education can dramatically enhance India’s rate of growth) and the explicit support for young entrepreneurs being freshly minted at a furious pace, all augur well for making growth touch 6.5 per cent. 

India’s corporate tax structure is now globally competitive! Rates of 25 and 15 per cent are completely acceptable to international investors. No wonder FDI is booming and we have historically high foreign exchange reserves! 

The 5 per cent tax reduction at all slabs in intervals of Rs 2.5 lakh will boost the incentive for new assesses to enter the tax regime. Combine this with automatic registrations, PAN Card allotments, faceless assessments and appeals, and a general promise to stop all harassment of tax payers, are truly dramatic changes. 

My prediction is that after the initial tumble, the indices will resume their forward march as global situations ease and the macro stability of our economy and its ability to provide sensible returns on a long-term basis, will get felt. The turnaround will happen and this time it will be sustainable. 

This Budget, again for the first time, establishes our ESG commitment. For a large economy like us, committing to close thermal plants, move rapidly to solar and renewables, and get micro irrigation and water conservation and supply into public discourse, is very heartening. 

The ball is now in our courts to make the magic happen around us and in our own enterprises .

Let’s bring the experience of ease of living and of doing business to our own doorsteps! Let’s embrace exponential technologies and make them converge in India. Let’s pledge that all targets will be jointly owned by us with our government. That is the feeling this directional Budget evokes!

The author is managing partner, Haribhakti & Co