<b>Sukumar Mukhopadhyay:</b> Budget to foster move towards GST

But lack of reform in customs duty is a glaring omission

For the first time in more than half a century that I have been actively associated with the Union Budget on the indirect tax side, I find, with great satisfaction, that practically no change has been introduced in the Budget. It is a status quo Budget, which is best under the circumstances. The Budget for 2017-18 has done well by not bringing out “many changes in the current regime of Excise and service tax because the same are to be replaced by GST soon”. It is a very wise decision due to the reason that any changes would have been