He also added that the Government shall enact a law to ensure that all benefits given by the government are conferred upon persons who deserve it, by a statutory backing to AADHAR platform.
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Recalling his last year’s promise of reducing corporate tax from 30 to 25 per cent over a period accompanied by rationalisation and removal of exemptions and incentives, Jaitley today limited accelerated depreciation provided under I-T Act to a maximum of 40 per cent from April 1, 2017.
“The BJP has to lay greater emphasis on social policy, it has to deliver a more populist budget”, said Saran, a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation think tank. There have been few sweeping reforms in the past two years that the government has been promising.
This amount includes the Rs 19,000 crore he has allocated for rural roads under the Pradhanmatri Gram Sadak Yojna.
Reacting to the budget Joe King, Head, Audi India stated that, “The budget presents a transformative agenda with clear-cut focus on initiatives for farmers, rural sector and infrastructure development”.
He further mentioned that, “The industry was hoping that the Government should have taken progressive steps such as introducing a “scrappage incentive scheme”, to keep older cars off the roads and would not have impacted the industry”.
As always though, the devil is in the implementation of these schemes. Ltd commented on the budget by stating, “We welcome the Union Budget”.
The minister also unveiled tax incentives for new manufacturing companies and some small enterprises.
“The expectations were high from the Finance Minister and Prime Minister for agriculture and rural demand. But, in other ways, it’s a classic tax-and-spend budget”.
Jaitley announced a capital injection of just $3.6-billion into public sector banks in the coming fiscal year – a fraction of total needs that his economic adviser, Arvind Subramanian, estimated at $26-billion in his prebudget report. However, no changes have been made to existing income tax slabs. We are not interfering in lending and personnel matters of the Banks.
Sentiment was hit mainly by a proposal for a higher dividend distribution tax on those earning more and a one on raising securities transaction tax in some categories. It will also impact HNIs investing in start-ups / encouraging enterprise.
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Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the government is drawing up a comprehensive plan, spanning next 15 to 20 years, to augment the investment in nuclear power generation. We are pleased that a sizeable sum has been allocated for ventures founded by women entrepreneurs and members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
