Budget 2012: Tax relief for salaried, disappointment for India Inc

Industry is struggling to see some positive in it. Allies have nothing to crib about. The Opposition sounds stretched to slam it with much enthusiasm. The biggest criticism of Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget 2012-13 comes from Dalal Street. India's benchmark Sensex closed 210 points lower as corporates said the higher excise duty and service tax proposed in the Budget would hurt growth. The Nifty too closed lower.

The finance minister has also proposed to retrospectively change the tax law as far as the Vodafone case is concerned and this will not go down well with foreign investors, analysts say.

A disappointed India Inc, which had been looking to Pranab Mukherjee to set things right, says the budget is a "missed opportunity", would have a cascading impact on inflation and consumer demand and is unlikely to boost growth.

NDTV’s experts have a quick list of the best and worst of Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget 2012-13:

Five best:

Negative list for services; Subsidies at 2% of GDP; Tax free infra bonds; Foreign borrowings for low-cost housing; Expansion of venture capital

Five worst:

Fiscal deficit at 5.1% of the GDP; Allocation of divestment proceeds; Growth projection at 7.6%; Subsidy payment by cash vouchers; Increase in agricultural credit

The government says that in a tough year it has put its best foot forward. The budget, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was about inclusive growth. “When the time comes, we have to bite the bullet on controlling subsidies,” he said after his finance minster Pranab Mukherjee presented the Union Budget 2012-13, his seventh.

At the very beginning of his speech Mr Mukherjee said that a “year of recovery interrupted” meant that it was time to take tough decisions. He pegged GDP growth for the next year at 7.6 %, promised that inflation would be down and said fiscal consolidation called for big efforts. The idea ahead of the budget was that fiscal deficit needed to be controlled by cutting subsidies and raising taxes. The finance minister has raised taxes and promised cuts in subsidies. He said central subsidies would be kept under 2% of the GDP in the next financial year. And brought lower to 1.7 per cent thereafter.

After the Budget had been read, many lauded the announcement but also wanted to see the roadmap for how the government intended to do this. The past performance of the government does not really say much on this front. Last year’s budget estimates said the subsidies bill would be Rs 1,34,209 crore. The revised estimates say it would be Rs 2,08,502 crore, way beyond the target set. The finance minister has set the target for this year at Rs 1,79,554 crore.

Government borrowing too is expected to be Rs 4,80,000 crore against the market expectation of Rs 4,30,000 crore. According to bankers like Uday Kotak, this does not leave any significant room for interest rate cuts. “Rate cuts would not be too many as many expect,” he said.

The industry has expressed disappointment.

"Not a great budget as I hoped it to be," B Muthuraman, vice chairman Tata Steel said. Pawan Goenka of Mahindra & Mahindra said that he was disappointed and did not see the finance minister announce things he said at the beginning of his speech.

Pranab Mukherjee has not chosen to not make many tall promises. The government missed its disinvestment target and also did not meet the deadline for implementation of tax reforms like direct tax code and goods and services tax or GST.

The government plans to raise Rs 30,000 crore through disinvestment, assuring the House that at least 51 per cent control remains with the government. He has not made any significant announcement on the implementation schedule of both DTC and GST. The idea of introducing the two was to widen the tax base and boost growth.

On black money, the government has not been able to unearth any significant wealth. But Mr Mukherjee has promised a white paper on black money.

Aam Aadmi

For the ‘aam aadmi’, there is some reason to smile with personal tax exemptions, but in the raising of service tax and excise duty there lurk higher prices. Mr Mukherjee has raised the income tax exemption limit to Rs 2 lakhs for all individual tax payers. This will result in savings of a minimum Rs 22,000 for all tax payers. Also, the upper limit for the 20% tax slab has been raised - from incomes up to 8 lakhs to incomes up to 10 lakhs.

The tax slabs proposed by Mr Mukherjee today are:
• Income up to Rs 2 lakh-- nil
• Income between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh - 10%
• Rs 5-10 lakh - 20%
• Above Rs 10 lakh - 30 %

Also interest of up to Rs 10,000 from saving accounts will be tax-deductible. And deduction of up to Rs 5,000 has been allowed for health checkups.

At the outset, Mr Mukherjee outlined five objectives of his budget:

• Focus on domestic demand driven growth recovery
• Creating conditions for growth
• Addressing supply bottlenecks, energy transport, road, power and civil aviation
• Decisively tackling malnutrition
• And expediting decision-making for better governance and address black money problem