A view on Indian budget 2024

The Indian expats expectations from the new government were very high. The Indian diaspora working abroad has sent a whopping amount of over one lakh crores to India last year, highest in the world. Their demands ranged from  comprehensive social security measures, under one umbrella,  among other issues impacting them like irrational and abnormal airfares. From that perspective, I am slightly disappointed with the Union budget.

Coming to the Indian context, I feel the budget is pro-development with a focus on agriculture,  employment generation, youth development, urban and rural development etc. The budget has a host of measures to boost the agriculture sector, the backbone of the Indian economy.

On the personal income tax front, the salaried class and pensioners have got some relief with enhanced exemptions while others have to be satisfied with the rate adjustments in the slabs. There is no tax relief for those who opt for old regime  and the basic exemption limit for both old and new regime has  kept in tact.

The reduction in the customs duty of Gold, Silver, platinum and mobiles phones have been well appreciated by the Industry and the people. In this context it is to be remembered that a major portion of the India’s forex is used for import of oil, gold and other electronic items.  This may have an adverse bearing on the balance of trade as more import may happen.

The abolition of the Angel Tax is a welcome move which was a major demand from startups and entrepreneurs. The reduction of corporate tax for foreign companies by 5% will result in higher investments in the country.

The budget has negatively impacted the stock market due to the upward revision in the Security Transaction Tax (STT), short-term and long-term capital gains.

The Indian rupee has also depreciated against the dollar and it may  take some more time to settle both markets taking cues from the actual impact of these new developments.

 Barring the  Pravasi expectations,  I feel the budget focused on promoting economic growth and paving the way for substantial  growth opportunities.

* The writer is former SBI official and financial expert