Budget: Trust in financial system will rise if promises implemented well

The writing is on the wall. The next investment product to lose the unwarranted tax exemption will in all likelihood be traditional life insurance products

The first reaction after digesting the Finance Bill was one of relief. No fresh tax has been proposed. Most of us had braced for a large dose of taxation, given the pandemic-fuelled fiscal constraints the government faces.

The most significant announcements, from an investor’s perspective, were not in the Finance Bill but in the Finance Minister’s (FM) speech. She announced that the government would introduce an investor charter as a right for financial investors “across all financial products”. If implemented properly and with appropriate enforcement mechanisms, this single step could change the way retail investors interact with financial products in India.

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