Budget 2018 Reactions: Budget Looks Quite Balanced To Me, Sanjeev Gupta

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the Union Budget?

I would rate it between 7-7.5.

Do you feel this is an election/populist budget or a developmental budget considering the elections next year?

It is a very balanced budget as on one hand, it has taken care of farmers, while on the other it has addressed the issues of infrastructure sector well and in between it takes care of the other important segments of our populace such as businessmen, the salaried class, also the capital gains tax, disinvestment target amongst others. Hence, in that sense it looks quite balanced to me.

Has the Government addressed the job/employment issue adequately in this Budget?

Not too adequately, but they have tried to address it in the sense that the MSMEs are a part of the focus, the corporate taxation specifically that has been liberalised to upto 250crore now of the profits is a very big move, I think it will give a very positive signal to all the corporates in that sense and of course it adds to, not too directly, not in the sense it does not focus directly on that.

Is the farm distress/agri crisis addressed well in this Budget?

Well, I did not notice too much on that front. One of the key issues the agriculturists are talking about is creating a marketplace because the MSP only addresses and guarantees the 20 per cent of the produce price while, the balance 80 per cent is actually what is to be sold independently. Thus, I did not find anything substantial in this respect except that there seems to be a fund which is being spoken about to be created to allow that marketing to happen, but, until I see the final details, I cannot say much. Overall, I do not find that kind of impetus being given to create that market as strongly.

Summarize the Union Budget in a few lines?

The Government has tried to give something to everyone by specifically trying to target 50 crore people of this country, targeting 10 lakh families granting them 5 lakh per annum of medical expense facilities through which they are almost trying to touch a very large part of population. I feel it is going to create a revolution in the health sector.

Three hashtag words/expressions to sum up the budget 2018?

Balanced, well thought out and could set new directions.