UNION BUDGET’07

In a nutshell PC delivered a politically correct budget, with an emphasis on distributing the profits of a booming economy to aam aadmi.

UNION BUDGET’07

In a nutshell PC delivered a politically correct budget, with an emphasis on distributing the profits of a booming economy to aam aadmi.

This is how PC summarises his budget:- "The big message is that growth story is intact. The other message is that we are now distributing the gains of growth to a larger number of people."

UNION BUDGET’07

In a nutshell PC delivered a politically correct budget, with an emphasis on distributing the profits of a booming economy to aam aadmi.

This is how PC summarises his budget:- "The big message is that growth story is intact. The other message is that we are now distributing the gains of growth to a larger number of people."

The +ve things outlined for aam aadmi are:-

• focus on health, education and agriculture
• allocation for irrigation increased maize and pulses mission
• one hundred thousand scholarships for children
• jobs for the physically challenged
• social security for one crore families through an insurance scheme
• seven million structures for ground water recharge
• restructuring of over a thousand ITI’s

Well the markets have not responded positively(though not negatively also) that’s because FM has left those sectors sortta untouched, not much change in big picture. In words of etbudget.com :- as far as corporates and markets are concerned, it was a mixed bag. Stock market operators, investors and investors are particularly unhappy with the increase in dividend distribution tax by 2.5 percent and bring all knowledge-based companies under the minimum alternative tax (MAT).

A big issue worrying economic experts was how will FM deal with the increasing inflation which is at an all-time high. Yes you Guessed it, our man PC has a solution:-

Deduction in ad valorem component of excise duty on petrol and diesel from 8% to 6%. Import duty cut for non-agricultural products from 12.5% to 10% and cut on most chemicals and plastics from 12.5% to 7.5%, may also help. Biscuits with MRP less than Rs 50 per kg, food mixes and instant mixes are now fully exempt from excise. Exemption limit for SSIs is raised from Rs.1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore, which may also help lower prices. All customs duty cuts and excise duty cuts are disinflationary addressing the supply side

For the middleclass (who happen to be the people who pay their taxes most religiously..ppl like me) the budget didin’t had any surprises. Contrary to pre-budget rumours on increase of invetsment limit for tax exemption upto 2lacs, it was only increased by 10K. instead, the education cess has been raised by 1%(industriey are crying over this point)

So, to summarise FM really came out with a politically budget. Some good points like emphasis on agriculture , education and health sector. A little more emphasis on indusrty would have been good, but how far can one ignore agriculture?? As for inflation, I’m that learned on this topic, but the points mentioned by FM look good….

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RAIL BUDGET'07

He is our celebrity, our camera and media friendly man, and once again he keeps is focus on “getting attention of masses”, boy o boy, this guy loves attention..but he has delivered too, atleast being a rail minister. Let's cut the crap and get to the point.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Reduced passenger fares across the board
• Lower fares and freight rates
• New trains, including high-speed trains, and additional coaches on existing trains.
• Large plan outlays to increase badly-needed capacity.
• Anywhere ticketing through petrol pumps, post office, ATM’s
• Tech-savvy ticket examiners armed with hand-held devices on high-end trains to reduce arbitrariness in filling up vacant berths.
  

RAIL BUDGET'07

He is our celebrity, our camera and media friendly man, and once again he keeps is focus on “getting attention of masses”, boy o boy, this guy loves attention..but he has delivered too, atleast being a rail minister. Let's cut the crap and get to the point

HIGHLIGHTS

• Reduced passenger fares across the board
• Lower fares and freight rates
• New trains, including high-speed trains, and additional coaches on existing trains.
• Large plan outlays to increase badly-needed capacity.
• Anywhere ticketing through petrol pumps, post office, ATM’s
• Tech-savvy ticket examiners armed with hand-held devices on high-end trains to reduce arbitrariness in filling up vacant berths.

The lowering of fares in AC-1 sleeper by 3% in peak periods and by 6% in lean periods, in AC-2 sleeper by 2% and 4%, and the newly-built AC-3 sleeper by 4% and 8% will no doubt help the Railways fight competition from low-cost airlines. However, the slashing of fares by 4% in the newly-designed sleeper class coach, the Re 1 decrease in prices for unreserved travel and a 20% reduction on superfast surcharge levied on second class tickets for superfast trains will add to the Railways’ cross-subsidy bill, which stands at a whopping Rs 4,000 crore as of now.(no, no don’t scared I’m not some economics geek, refer to http://www.etbudget.com and u’ll be one too)

LALU’S COOL FUNDAS

• Anywhere ticketing from local post office, petrol pumps and even ATMs.
• Dispersed dispensing of tickets and lower fees for electronic ticketing to reduce queues at booking counters.
  
• Setting up of passenger reservation system (PRS) facilities at all non-suburban stations under group D and E.
  
• About 6,000 automatic ticket vending machines to be installed in all major cities for unreserved tickets.
• PRS-cum-UTS (unreserved ticketing system) counters to be provided at post offices as well as defence organisations.
• Train enquiry call centres to start operation in the four major railway hubs between June and September this year, providing information on departures, arrivals and seat availability. They will also provide value-added services like SMS, railway ticketing and taxi booking in the near future.

And if our beehari babu has his way then travel from delhi-jaipur, mumbai-ahmedabad in just one hour, if this happens, then surely IR will give low-cost-airline guys a run for their money

The experts are lauding lalu again(may be this time he goes to harvard business school!!), the cut in prices will help in checking inflation, lalu’s cool fundas’ll surely make rail travel pleasurable. But rome was not built in day, similarly yadav can’t mend years of mismanagement in just one budget, he’s trying, but it’ll take lots of such budgets before IR can become competitive on a global scale.

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