Business Today spoke to Indian business leaders on what they thought about Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's first Budget, for the 2014-15 fiscal.
Business Today speaks to CEOs about their expectations from Union Budget 2014-15.
"People of India have voted decisively for change," Jaitley said in what was the maiden budget for himself and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda on July 8 presented his first budget, the Railway Budget for fiscal 2014/15, in Parliament. Funds of about Rs 5 lakh crore are required for the next 10 years for completing ongoing projects alone, the minister said.
Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar and his predecessor Manish Tiwari discuss how fast-tracking approvals to projects can boost the economy.
Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan talks about how the new government plans to iron out the issues related to the Food Security Act's implementation across states.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and his predecessor Kamal Nath discuss the ways the Narendra Modi government's first budget can help India return to over 8 per cent growth rate.
Ajit Ranade, chief economist at Aditya Birla Group says the government should tame inflation, ensure fiscal consolidation, raise agricultural and manufacturing growth in the July Budget.
Arvind Virmani, former chief economic advisor, says the government should lay out a roadmap for bringing revenue deficit to zero within three years.
Dhiraj Mathur, executive director at PwC India, says growth of the manufacturing sector should be a top priority for the government in the Budget.
Satya Poddar, Partner, EY says the government should avoid controversial structural reforms in the Budget that may dampen investor sentiment. The government should provide stimulus to raise capital spending.
The finance minister has cleared the ambiguity surrounding taxation of REITs, removing a big hurdle to their launch.
Accepting the challenge of maintaining the fiscal deficit at 4.1% for the financial year 2014-15, a budgetary framework has been cast - amendments made on the personal tax front reflect the overall objective of fiscal prudence.
The Budget proposes to increase the tax on long-term gains from non-equity mutual funds from 10% to 20% after indexation.
On SEBI's recommendation for the pension market, retirement funds floated by fund houses will now be given the same tax benefits as other pension funds with the new budget.
Buying insurance can be a daunting task due to the sheer volume of information that you have to provide in the proposal form.
Like all preceding years, cigarettes and gutkhas are set to get more expensive. However, the Budget also delivered pleasant surprises by making some products cheaper.
The budget listed many measures to improve irrigation, strengthen warehousing, expand R&D, boost farm credit, enhance productivity, etc.
In the politics of the country, there has been a clean break from the past. This ought to have been followed on taxation too.
Treating the taxpayer as a customer will help improve mutual trust.
Chances are next to nil that the revenue targets can be met. Further, the central government has rarely succeeded in meeting disinvestment targets and some slippage is quite likely.
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