While defending the finance minister&rsquo;s intentions and policy direction in the recent Budget proposals, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and a top government policy maker, makes it clear that many of the things that need to be done are well outside the financial document. A serious and ceaseless effort at sensible political consensus is a must, he says in an interview with Karan Thapar on the CNN-IBN television channel&rsquo;s Devil&rsquo;s Advocate.

Most things needed to be done are outside Budget: Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Business Standard

That the government has shown a determination to widen the tax net is commendable. Reform of certain aspects of the Direct Taxes Code is overdue. Often, lack of clarity in the law allows companies to cling to debatable interpretations that cause the intent of the legislation to remain unfulfilled. Many of the current requirements are incapable of dealing with a vastly more complex, globalised economy. In addition, there is a climate abroad against widespread tax evasion.

Taxman's joy 

Now that Dinesh Trivedi has resigned as railway minister, the fate of the fare increases he proposed is uncertain. His successor, also from the Trinamool Congress, may well roll back the increases, especially in second-class fares, which will be unfortunate. Mr Trivedi had shown the courage to stem the rot in the finances of the Indian Railways. His departure and the fear of an imminent fare rollback serve as a sad reminder that populism rules the roost and prudent management has few takers. If Mr Trivedi had indeed kept his party leader, Mamata Banerjee, in the dark about the fare increases then there is ground to seek his replacement. But it will be unwise to throw the baby out with the bathwater; let the reforms initiated by Mr Trivedi proceed.

Keep Mr Trivedi's reforms 

From individual investors' perspective, the Budget may not be as lacklustre as it is on the macroeconomic front. The direct benefits include higher exemption limit in personal tax, exemption up to Rs 10,000 for interest on savings and 50 per cent exemption on investments of up to Rs 50,000 in equities. There could be a minor impact with the 20 per cent reduction in STT.

More unto the individual: Rajesh Saluja

It was the year 2008 when AMW unveiled its new generation trucks for the Indian market at the Auto Expo. This was a milestone in the Indian trucking industry, as the products emulated global standards at affordable prices.

Balance long-term planning with market needs: Anirudh Bhuwalka

Due to political compulsions, path-breaking reforms weren&rsquo;t expected. However, some industry captains had hoped for big-bang announcements. In that, it disappoints. Not many had believed the 4.5 per cent fiscal deficit targets last year, while the final number of 5.9 per cent is worse. There is more credibility to the 5.1 per cent number for FY13 and directionally the move to cap subsidies at two per cent of GDP is positive. One expects the government to raise fuel prices.

Not a thriller: Prateek Pant

In hindsight, if one looks at what happened in 2011, the general perception is that it was a year when things went horribly wrong both on the global as well on the domestic front. However, things have not been all that bad.

Financial inclusion is a huge business opportunity: Kapil Wadhawan

I am 42 and a non-smoker. I am planning to buy a term insurance of Rs 1 crore. Hence, I want to choose a plan carefully.

Life Insurance: V Philip

Times of extreme turmoil are also times of opportunity and validation.

Take advantage of each part of the LSP ratio: Dhiraj Rajaram

Crisil believes the impact of the Union Budget on corporate India is neutral. It contains various small measures in the right direction for the infrastructure sector. These include improved access to foreign funding in the form of external commercial borrowing, reduction in the withholding tax on foreign funding, and increase in the quantum of tax-free bonds that will reduce the cost of funds for infrastructure projects.

Impact of Budget neutral on India Inc: Roopa Kudva

Much of what the Union Budget has delivered, on the revenue side in particular, has been expected for some time. In particular, the move to a negative list in services - widening the tax net - has been long delayed. As Table 1 shows, the output of the services sector has only grown as a percentage of GDP; yet taxes on services industries comprise a much smaller proportion of the total tax intake of the government.

StatsGuru-19 March-12

The three big events &ndash; state elections, the Reserve Bank of India&rsquo;s mid-quarter monetary policy review and the presentation of the Union Budget for FY13 &ndash; that the markets were waiting for are over. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee may not have bitten the bullet on fiscal consolidation, but he has taken a slew of measures across sectors &ndash; be it infrastructure, metals, power, capital goods or banking &ndash; to revive flagging growth and investments. Given that the market remains wary over the economy&rsquo;s fundamentals, stock picking will play an important role in determining returns this year.

20 stocks to watch out for

A cash-strapped government cannot fund the investment needed for India&rsquo;s growth story alone, as the 12th Five-Year Plan projections emphasise in their proposal that private sector resources be tapped to fuel roughly 50 per cent of investment. This means attracting a much larger share of household savings into equity and corporate debt, a government objective underlined by the Budget&rsquo;s tax provisions. The doubling of tax-free infrastructure bond issue limits to Rs 60,000 crore, for example, means more project finance paper on offer. The new Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme, which offers individuals with a taxable income limit of Rs 10 lakh a deduction of 50 per cent for direct equity investments of Rs 50,000, appears to be designed to support the disinvestment programme. Securities transaction taxes have also been reduced.

Regulation, not incentives

The consensus opinion that has developed about the 2012-13 Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday is that it was unambitious, especially in terms of reworking government spending. It delivered little in terms of a vision for reform, the argument goes, constrained as it was by the spending-hungry allies in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the entitlement-hooked Congress leadership. A closer, more informed reading, however, reveals that this view is mistaken in important respects. Indeed, this Budget contains within it time-bound plans for a significant transformation of how the state spends and gathers its finances. It also suggests that a long-standing argument about India&rsquo;s policy direction within the UPA establishment has been won by reformist, progressive elements.

Building on Aadhaar

&nbsp;
PwC analyses the impact of Budget proposals for 2012-13 on individuals and industry
DIRECT TAXES
INDIRECT TAXES
SOCIAL SECTOR
&nbsp;

FM proposes key tax administration changes 

Why are exemptions still part of the Indian tax system despite the stress on tax reforms? A former finance ministry official has an interesting explanation. He said a top industrialist once told him rather explicitly that, &quot;Sarkar to hamari dukan hai. Hamen jo choot chahiye hoti hai, hum woh kharid lete hain &quot; (the government is like a shop for us, we buy whatever exemptions we need to run our business). This could explain why the direct taxes code and goods and services tax are so difficult to introduce, since exemptions are incompatible with these critical legislations.

Buy-in for exemptions

Afraid that a throat ailment could blunt his presentation of the Budget in the raucous well of the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee paid a visit to New Delhi's Army Research and Referral Hospital a couple of days ago and asked the Brigadier in-charge to apply &quot;near-military&quot; treatment to restore his voice. He is said to have insisted that his vocal function be perfect on March 16, even joking that he wouldn't mind if it was &quot;completely destroyed&quot; subsequently. &quot;The reply [to the Budget] I will somehow manage,&quot; Mukherjee is understood to have told the army doctor.

`Near-military` Mukherjee

Maybe the clamours for Vijay Mallya to scale back his lifestyle in view of the losses his airline is making are being heard. Or maybe he wants to send his employees, who have been unpaid for months, a message. So, for his first meeting with the airline's mutinous pilots, Mallya chose not an elaborate five-star hotel, which would have been in keeping with his style, but a small banquet hall in south Delhi.

Low flier

Amit Ranjan Rai&rsquo;s photo-feature on the tribes of Kutch was a visual treat, to say the least (&ldquo;Face of Kutch,&rdquo; March 10). All the pictures captured in great depth the traditional lives of the people, complete with their ethnic robes, jewellery, mud-houses and so on. The Rann of Kutch happens to be the cradle of civilisation. And so, even as we promote it as a tourist destination, we must defend its delicate ecosystem and unique character from unchecked tourism and commercialisation.

Letters: A visual treat 

You have aptly highlighted in your front-page report that fuel price increases could be round the corner (&ldquo;Big taxes hikes done, fuel next,&rdquo; March 17). Five features of Budget 2012-13 merit focus. First, it will lead to severe inflation that will hit the common man. The price of diesel is expected to increase in the next few months and that will raise the prices of basics and food items. Moreover, the aam aadmi will be burdened with additional taxes of Rs 45,940 crore.

Letters: Budget lowlights

One wonders whether the Budget was announced after adequate homework on the current economic conditions. The 18 per cent increase in outlay for the agriculture sector is grossly inadequate given the fact that this sector has been neglected for decades. Moreover, concessions for the aviation sector by further facilitating access to foreign loans and direct import of aviation turbine fuel are hardly in the interest of the aam aadmi and will make no difference to him. The farming community&rsquo;s interests have taken a back seat in this Budget. All in all, it appears the aim of this year&rsquo;s Budget was to appease all sectors with some minor tweaks instead of real reforms.

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