Budget 2016 India: Focus on building fundamentals of economy: Jaijit Bhattacharya

Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner – Infrastructure and Government Services, KPMG India

The Union Budget is sharply focused on a few key themes, which were already declared by the FM earlier. The Budget focused on an efficient and effective government, rationalisation of taxation, heavy focus on rural with funds for de-stressing rural economy, Soft and hard infrastructure with over Rs. 2.2 trillion for combined rail, road, airports & waterways, focus on human resource development and de-stressing of the financial systems, including bank. It is also a welcome step to move from a fixed fiscal deficit target to a range, which will provide necessary fiscal headspace to the government. Overall the Budget appears to focus on building the fundamentals of the economy and the economic & financial institutions.