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I did not expect any ground breaking announcement from the FM in this Vote-On-Account. What he has given is essentially a ‘play safe’ Budget, with a few token measures but no bold policy decisions.
The FM merely voiced his worries for the Indian economy but was not able to articulate path-breaking solutions to tackle the huge challenge of kick-starting a stalling macro-economy.
While the FM’s announcement on fiscal deficit to be contained at 4.6% of GDP for FY14 is welcome, it remains to be seen how it can be reduced further to 4.1 % in FY15, especially when fiscal spends on the populist measures have been deferred to the next fiscal.
The proposal to set up a Research Funding Organisation sounds good, but we will need to see how it will be implemented to make any meaningful impact. The only positive take away from this Budget, I think is the excise duty reduction on automobiles and consumer goods, which hopefully may spur consumer spending.
The writer is CMD at Biocon Ltd
