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I think the political compulsions made the finance minister decide that the best way is to play it safe, economics calls for austerity while the politics demands profligacy -" in nut shell it is fine balance between populist measures and hard-nosed reforms.
The capital intensive manufacturing and infrastructure will get a push on account of introduction of 15 per cent investment allowance.
The upward revision of import duty, from one per cent to over four per cent on steam coal imports will adversely impact the industry as it will lead to increase in cost of power generation. This is little amusing as the country has huge deficit in coal and the government is trying minimise cost by augmenting coal supply through various initiatives for domestic production as well as opting for price pooling of domestic and imported coal.
Steps towards implementation of the Goods and Services Tax will help the trade. It will make taxes uniform and can also help to reduce prices. The progress on DTC and promise to introduce the same in current budget session too is a positive development.
Overall, this Budget can be termed a moderately populist, as the FM has tried to address majority of the issues faced by the common man and it has also shown the softer side of the United Progressive Alliance by announcing gender sensitive schemes, especially for women.
Gautam Adani
Chairman, Adani Group
