Finance Ministry could have been bolder. But budget is heavy on vision and inclusive growth | The Indian Express

Finance Ministry could have been bolder. But budget is heavy on vision and inclusive growth | The Indian Express

Written by Surjit S Bhalla |Updated: July 6, 2019 9:45:53 am

The writer is Contributing Editor at The Indian Express, and Consulting Editor at Network 18

Finance Ministry could have been bolder. But budget is heavy on vision and inclusive growth

Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech was what budget speeches ought to be. A vision statement of what the government plans to do. She set the tone of her speech in an honest and direct manner.

Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman. (Express Photo: Prem Nath Pandey)

Budgets used to be an accounting statement — and finance ministers indulged their favourite industrialists to reveal who was favoured and who was not. Excise taxes went up for those the FMs wanted to punish, and down for those they wanted to encourage. Then came GST. Now 18 months old, and with the GST Council making all the decisions, there is precious little for the FM to do on indirect taxes. We await the finalisation of the direct tax code. Until then, the Union Budget can tinker around (this time more than tinker) with corporate and individual tax rates. The good news is that the corporate tax rate was reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent for all but 0.7 per cent of firms. Why not all firms is a question everybody is asking.