A good budget
- Reduces taxes.
- Reduces regulations.
- Reduces subsidies.
- Reduces expenses by privatization; reduces deficit.
Some parts of this 2019 budget are good; some parts of the bad.
The good parts of the budget are:
- Reduction in custom duty for some defence equipment,
- GST process slightly simplified with one monthly return.
- Tax rate slightly reduced for small companies.
- Disinvestment. It will not benefit much because the government retains control over PSU
The bad parts of the budget are:
- Increase in customs duty on gold, books, TVs, ACs, CCTVs, etc.
- Additional tax on fuel.
- Large cash withdrawals to be taxed.
- Income tax on rich individuals increased
- New tax on share buybacks.
- Tax rebate for affordable housing will make housing costlier.
- Tax rebate on loans for EVs will cause disproportionate and unnecessary investment in EVs. This investment would have been better utilized elsewhere.
- PSU banks will be provided with Rs 70,000 crores. PSU are already bankrupt. Why waste more money on them?
- Instead of reducing borrowing, India will now borrow in foreign currency, rather than domestically.
Overall the budget does little. It is basically a lost opportunity to make any significant improvements.
