The government's move towards fiscal consolidation was the most pleasing part about the budget. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that fiscal deficit would be 4.6%, expenditure would go up by 3.4% and borrowings would come down by 5%. These numbers were the extremely pleasing, but the major worries about budget are those very same numbers, as achieving that is worth wondering. He is banking on a huge jump in taxes with about 18-20% increase in them and is looking at almost 18% increase in revenue. He is banking on corporate India in returning almost 40% increase in taxes like last year.
The worries are whether corporate India will really grow the way it did last year. Has the budget done enough to revive manufacturing confidence in the country as we have already seen signs of slowdown? Cement production, which is a great proxy for construction, has come down. Cement shipment and auto sales are slowing. Can corporate India provide the FM with the kind of money he is expecting this year as we have seen all signs of industrial production slowing? M Laxminarayan, Partner at Deloitte Haskins and Sells and Head of their tax practice; Tarun Kataria, Chief Executive Officer of Religare Capital Markets Limited; Sumant Sinha, Founder and Chairman of Savant Advisors, debate on whether the corporate India will grow as expected by the Finance Minister and whether the budget will prove to be beneficial. Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview with CNBC-TV18Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
