Center for Management Studies, Jain (Deemed-to-be University) organized a session on post-budget analysis, Anatomy of Union Budget – 2017 by Postgraduate Departments of Economics and Mass Communication, Bangalore.
The session was addressed on, “We are going back to pre-LPG days, which is in sync with current protectionism approach,” said Dr. Xavier V K, professor of economics, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Bengaluru, while making his inaugural address at the post-budget analysis.
Dr. Sandeep Shastri, Pro Vice Chancellor, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Bengaluru viewed the budget from a “PR” perspective where ‘P’ stood for promise vs performance and ‘R’ for rhetoric vs reality. The budget was seen as mid-term, election - linked and post demonetization budget. It was more like a “please-all” budget and one could not have expected a better concession speech than this, he added. The government had identified 10 pathways towards growth, which could be broadly considered under three heads including public services, underprivileged, and agriculture. He mentioned that the focus on increasing the capital expenditure was a welcome step.
Dr. Batani Raghavendra Rao, Professor of Finance, Jain (Deemed-to-be University) opined that “the budget had a simple and a practical approach to it.” He observed that the cut in income tax rate from 10 percent to 5 percent led to higher disposable income while bringing more people into the tax net. The LTCG holding period cut to 2 years from 3 years for immovable property and shifting base period from 1981 to 2001, led to a boost to the real estate arena and tax bonanza for people.
Dr. Batani Raghavendra Rao, Professor of Finance, Jain (Deemed-to-be University) opined that with the abolishment of research and development, foreign technology and know-how were being encouraged. He noted that domestic manufacturing of POS card reader for m-POS, micro-ATM, fingerprint reader/scanner and iris had been exempted from tax to promote digitization and cashless transactions.
Dr. Mathew P M, adjunct professor, Jain (Deemed-to-be University) noted that India's spending on healthcare was lowest compared to the other BRICS countries. The budget should have focused more on the universal healthcare aspect, as diseases are increasing at an alarming rate. There was a proposal to increase the in-house manufacturing of generic drugs, but the quality of such drugs was questionable, he averred.
Dr. Charan Singh, RBI-Chair, and professor of Economics, IIMB opined that budget was a part of the macroeconomic growth. He went on to say that this budget was sort of different given that the finance minister quoted statistics to say that ours was largely a non-tax compliant nation.
He added that it was better if the finance minister rather announced that Indians did pay indirect taxes, as indirect taxes were invariably paid for all goods and services consumed, while there was non-compliance on the direct tax front. He opined that tax collection mechanism needed to be made a lot more efficient. He said the budget failed to answer issues such as any relief to the bankers who worked towards the mammoth task of demonetization. He averred that protectionism was the way forward, and promoting a conducive environment for indigenous products was the need of the hour.
Prof. Anila Bajpai - Jain (Deemed-to-be University) CMS, proposed the vote of thanks. On the occasion, a special newsletter on the budget from the Bangalore Economics Students' and Teachers' Forum was released.
