Indian budget 2018-19

A good budget

• lowers and lessens the number of taxes
• Reduces deficit by reducing subsides
• Massive privatization
• Reduces rules, regulations and size of bureaucracy.

The budget released in Feb 2018 has following characteristics:
The good:

• Corporate tax rate reduced for small companies.
• Standard deduction for salaried simplifies tax laws.
• Senior citizens will pay less tax e.g. Rs 50,000 tax free interest.
• Railway fares not increased.

The bad

• Duties raised on imported goods.
• Minimum support price raised for farmers. This will mean higher prices for others.
• Rs 1,200 crores allocated for universal health care. More subsidies means more inflation/taxes.
• Tax increased for high income individuals

The ugly:

• Deficit rises.
• Long-term tax on stock gains introduced.

Overall this budget is bad. It will cause inflation to rise.