Budget Reaction Quote By Dr Rajeev K Sharma

Dr Rajeev K Sharma, Senior Orthopedic Specialist & Joint Replacement Surgeon at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi says,
"The most notable part of the budget announcements on the healthcare sector is of course on the health insurance front. We have seen people lose their savings, become indebted and bankrupt to meet healthcare exigencies in the family and we as healthcare providers strongly believe that penetration of health insurance should increase in India. In this direction, increasing of the tax exemption for health insurance is a welcome measure.

"Another welcome announcement is about establishment of more AIIMS like institutions. There is also this initiative by the FM about a new scheme of providing physical aids for senior citizens below poverty line. This is encouraging too. But in India, the devil lies in the implementation. We hope these positive initiatives are implemented with speed and effectiveness.

"The budget’s overall emphasis on cleanliness initiatives in line with the Swatch Bharat Campaign seems fresh and positive. I am particularly happy about the target of 6 crore new toilets. This is a major healthcare issue and I happy that in the past few years our public policy and awareness initiatives have started giving this issue its due.

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Brijesh Parnami, CEO, Destimoney Advisors speaks on Union Budget

The FM has presented the first full year budget.

A big relief for NBFCs is their inclusion under the SARFAESI Act. NBFCs with assets of Rs.500 crore and above have now the opportunity to use SARFAESI Act against wilful defaulters. This was a much needed level playing field required for NBFCs. The NBFC of course should be registered with RBI.

Housing for all objective focussed at year 2022 sounds more rhetoric. However, if implemented seriously, this would mean 6 crore more houses to be built of which 4 crores would be in rural and 2 crore in urban. With the supply going up, this could put pressure on the real estate prices. On the investment side, the FM has encouraged Real Estate Investment Trusts by rationalising the capital gains at the time of exit. This should help unlock funds which could be further used in other projects.

On the whole, This is a positive budget. It is indeed growth oriented. After having relaxed the norms in the earlier budget for individual tax payers, with further relaxations on medical, increase in transport allowance limit etc. the FM has tried to reach out to the middle class. The phased reduction of Corporate tax rates from 30% to 25%, over a period of 4 years, is indeed welcome.

There has been an attempt to focus spends on sectors that have a higher multiplier effect on the economy. The announcement that GST will get implemented from 1st April 2016 should be a great encouragement to the industry. The gold monetisation scheme could help in making the gold market more dynamic in the country. Attempts to strengthen the social security net through Universal Social Security System and Atal Pension Yojana are steps in the right direction. The implementation though needs to be seen.

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FM presents Union Budget in Lok Sabha

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the second Union Budget of NDA coalition government in Lok Sabha today. He reached Lok Sabha ten minutes earlier and met all the opposition leaders in the lower house.

As usual, the budget presentation started at 11 am by the minister. In his address, finance minister said that Indian economy has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The economy is likely to achieve the growth rate of 8 per cent in the current fiscal year. Highlighting the macro economic data, the minister said that headline inflation has been moderating and the fiscal deficit declining as well. However, manufacturing sector is the major concern for the economy, but the good news is that, it is revived from the negative steam and moving up. 

Minister praised the government’s policies – Jan Dhan Yojna, Swatch Bharat and Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Gurantee Scheme. In the budget, Rs. 5,000 crore additional allocation has been made for MGNREGA.

Other Highlights:

• Abolition of Wealth Tax.
• Additional 2% surcharge for the super rich with income of over Rs. 1 crore.
• Rate of corporate tax to be reduced to 25% over next four years.
• No change in tax slabs.
• Total exemption of up to Rs. 4,44,200 can be achieved.
• 100% exemption for contribution to Swachch Bharat, apart from CSR.
• Service tax increased to14 per cent.
• Rs. 25,000 crore for Rural Infrastructure Development Bank.
• Rs. 70,000 crores to Infrastructure sector.
• AIIMS in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Assam.
• Centre of film production, animation and gaming to come up in Arunachal Pradesh.
• IIM for Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh.
• Allocation of Rs. 2,46,726 crore; an increase of 9.87 per cent over last year.
• DBT will be further be expanded from 1 crore to 10.3 crore.
• Develpoment schemes for churches and convents in old Goa; Hampi, Elephanta caves, Forests of Rajasthan, Leh palace, Varanasi, Jallianwala Bagh, Qutb Shahi tombs at Hyderabad to be under the new tourism scheme.
• Permanent Establishment norms to be modified to that mere presence of offshore fund managers in the country does not lead to “adverse tax consequences.”

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IIC submits representation for 2015 Budget to Govt

Impact Investors Council (IIC), an industry body to promote impact investing in India, today submitted a representation for the forthcoming Budget to the Minister of State for Finance, Shri Jayant Sinha, on behalf of the investors and social entrepreneurs, seeking recognition for the Rs 10,000-crore sector, and easier financing for social enterprises.

Impact Investors invest in social enterprises, which are working to create social and environmental change in the country.

Impact investing essentially involves investing with the implicit intention of generating positive social impact along with a return on capital. It ends the old dichotomy, which saw business as simply a way to make profit, while social progress was best achieved through charity or aid.

Impact investment has been growing at a rate of 27%in India over the last seven years, and 30+ impact investment funds in the country have invested a cumulative amount of $1.6 billion in 300+ social enterprises and across a range of industries such as financial inclusion, agribusiness, healthcare, education and clean energy, among others[1].

Social enterprises in India have exemplified the power that businesses can do ‘good’ while creating value for themselves. However, they have found it challenging to source institutional capital, especially in their initial years. Impact investing has played a key role in filling the crucial gap of financing social enterprises in India.

“Impact Investors have used the power of financial markets and ingenuity of social entrepreneurs to build Rs 10,000 crore impact investment industry with a promise to exceed Rs 6,000 crore annually by 2020. The industry helps bridge our national social investment gap while serving the poor and underserved. Therefore, IIC is requesting the Government to partner us and help galvanize the impact investment eco-system,” said Amit Bhatia, Chief Executive Officer, IIC.

In its first ever member-only convention, the board members of the council presented the priority areas that need immediate attention from the government to boost the impact investing activity in India. IIC requested for the following:

1. Official recognition of impact investors, social enterprises and IIC

2. Review of social venture fund (SVF) guidelines

3. Extending priority sector lending to social enterprises

4. Increasing access to External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) funding by social enterprises

5. “Panel Member” on the high level committee on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and social impact assessment measures.

The number of impact investors-funded social enterprises is expected to reach 1,000 by 2020. The staggering growth is on the back of impact investment, which is estimated to cross $6 billion or Rs 40,000 crore by 2020, while the annual figure is likely to exceed $1 billion in the next five years. The cumulative investment of Rs 10,000 crores positions India as one of the largest impact investment destinations in the world[2].

IIC is working towards the goal of reducing information asymmetry in the impact investing sector. The council has helped in establishing a working definition of impact investing that outlines the contours of impact investing and an impact investor in India. It has also put forth a comprehensive view on the quantum of impact investing across years, sectors and stages of enterprise growth. In addition to these activities, IIC is currently working towards developing national standards for impact assessment and measurement.

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Financial Prospects in the Fiscal Year 2013-14

Many changes in the financial prospects are possible in the fiscal year 2013-14.Union budget for the last fiscal year will be tabled in the Parliament by the finance minister.

It is expected that, the government could table a populist budget in order to give some relief to the people those have been reeling under the pressure high-inflation, high fuel prices and low income-tax slabs.

Keeping the possible budgetary policy for the fiscal year, it could guess that there would be lot changes in the financial prospect in the year 2013-14. 

It is going to affect all the budges including household, industry and economy. The price of goods and services have gone up due to the impact of hike in the petrol and diesel.

Before the union budget, the people will see railway budget allocation, and chances are there there could rise in the freight charges in the railway budget as the passengers fairs have already been hiked in the last month.

Any hike in the freight would help the inflation to back into its massive form, which has been moderating, and considering moderation in the headline inflation the RBI cut the key interest rates.

It is sure that the changes in the income tax slabs going to change the financial prospect and individual preferences. The industrial bodies would be recommending the finance minster for a soft hear towards the corporate taxes in the budget 20013-14.

The health of India economy would also be big concern as the poor performance of agriculture and mining sectors cause a low growth rate of 5 per cent.

In a nutshell,  it is clear that there has been slowdown and everybody is going to affect in terms for the financial prospect in the fiscal year 2013-14.

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Indian Economy to Recover from Slowdown?

Indian economy will recover from the clutches of the slowdown. The GDP growth rate might project at 5.7 per cent for the fiscal year 2012-13, but it will revive its position from there, with help of some good economic reforms.

The UPA government has initiated the economic reforms, which are actually terms are 'need of the hour' and would boost the Indian economy.

Some tough decision like reducing sub-sidies on energy products would be consider to give a relief to oil companies from dipping further into losses. However, the hike in petrol or diesel prices, are going to affect the budget of common men.

The decision of such, would be against the people but necessary to keep up the growth momentum. The target set of 8 per cent growth rate for Indian economy in the 12th Five Year Plan is enough to indicate the possible economic reforms the government would consider to achieve it.

It is clear that in the year 2013, people might need to lose some extra money on their transport following further possible hike in the petrol and diesel prices.

The union budget 2013-14 will be tabled in Parliament in the month of February 2013, by the finance minister. It is speculated that the budget would  aim for clear revive of economy from the clutches of economic slowdown.

On the other hand, if the trend of populist budget follows keeping the 2014 election, then the revival of India economic growth might be in trouble. Since, India will witness its mega election battle for Lok Sabha, in 2014 general election involving huge expenditure of government fund.

And subsidies may be high to keep all sectors happy,that also would weight high on Indian economy. There are two sides of coin, one side good economic reforms and the other side is to give plenty of subsidies to back into the power gain. There are options, lets wait and watch which side of the coin will fall, after toss.

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FM withdraws 1% TDS on Property Sales

The finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has withdrawn the proposed 1% tax deduction at source (TDS) on immovable property transactions on Monday. During the budget session the finance minister had proposed about implementing TDS on property sales.

The proposed one per cent TDS on property transaction would have high burden on buyers, as they need to furnish personal details, property details in the tax deduction form.

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How people reacted to Union Budget 2011-12?

Well, the question is obvious - how the people reacted to the union budget 2011-12 presented by the finance minister recently, its a bit of satisfaction for the salaried people. There nothing new as expected in the budget.

The raising income tax slab from 1.60 lakh to 1.80 lakh, is the best relief the finance minister could give to the majority of the salaried people and again the senior citizens got the major relief. And those are more than having age of 80, citing this the finance minister cited that he still need to attain.



Some of the sectors are brought into the net of service tax, which could give more additional revenue to the government of India. Measures to tackle the inflation is still a big role that the government of India alongwith RBI and finance minister, has to play.

The project of the GDP growth rate in the budget is awesome, and the one of biggest economies of the world to see the growth of 9 per cent. The inflation and the black money are the major concern for the economy. Still long measures have to be taken to check these concerns.

People of India, however, gave a positive response to the union budget. The corporate world, is happy with the moves the finance minister made to present a balanced budget. The ICDS workers have the best reason to smile as the finance minister gave best so far priority.

Farmers of India have some mixed response towards the budget. The farmers suicide the biggest major concern for most of the state governments and the central government as well. While presenting the union budget 2011-12, the finance minister also thanked the God Indra (the rain God) for the good monsoon, that gave agriculture sector some smile. And this budget also growth oriented, if the agriculture sector is taken into consideration.

The Industrial sector has also been performing well of late. From negative to good growth rate of IIP in Indian economy shows the development of the industrial and manufacturing sector in India.

During the recession and global downturn, the India economy sustained the pressure and the special relief and allotment from the government of India help the economy to have quick recovery from the pressure.

The bottom line is the budget got the most positive response from the people of India. However, people of India still expects to get best another popular budget next year. And the assembly election in five states would be the major focus, which could be major reason for such people friendly budget.

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Double Digit GDP Growth for Indian Economy : Economic Survey

Business News : In coming two to three years, the double digit growth is possible for Indian Economy, the Economic Survey. There are strong market fundamentals and the economy is heading toward complete recovery from the clutches of global slowdown. The Economic Survey also indicates that the food inflation is there biggest challenge is ahead for the economy. The food inflation is reach also most to 18 per cent and would rise if the mechanism taken by the government would not successful.

The price of sugar if taken into consideration then the opposition party voice in Parliament is proper and on time. The pinch of the food inflation is being felt by the people. May the poor Public Distribution System (PDS) be the major reason but the imbalances in the import and export of essential goods thus major reason as well.

The Economic Survey Report would good enough the boost the confidence the interest of investors in the stock market. But it is the finance minister who'll guide the interest of investors and market reactions with his upcoming Union Budget on Friday in Parliament.

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What is Your Expectation from the Union Budget 2010-11 ?

Business News This Week: Its time for Union Budget 2010-11, the finance minister would be busy in preparing the budget for the people of India. Aam Admi may get its perfect place in this budget and the food inflation rates in India made concept of Aam Admi true. As they are helpless to tackle the soaring food prices and forced to pay the extra for the same, which they used to pay less for the same. The Prime Minister has also expressed his concern over the food inflation and soaring prices. The finance minister may take some measures in this budget about the public distribution system (PDS) mechanism. 

The budget is all about the income and expenditure, so as to a laymen. Budget of a country is quite different from the individual perception of a man about it. In the union budget, the promises and common minimum programme of the UPA may also get the better place. There is possibility of rise in the defence expenditure though the Indo-Pak talks are set to begin. On the contrary, the industrial sector of the country to get the benefit from the union budget, as the era of recession is about the end. The government may take some measures regarding the stimulus packages given to the sectors to deal with the economic slowdown.

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