‘’The new policy of scrapping of vehicles will lead to increase in automobile sales as well as improve the health of our environment. Every new vehicle on the road means more jobs ’’ said Mr.Homi P. Ranina, Sr. Supreme Court Lawyer and eminent tax expert. He was speaking live from Mumbai at the World Trade Center’s annual post budget program. The summary of his talk is given below.

This has been one of the difficult budget for any Finance Minister to present. This pandemic has disrupted the plans of our last year budget. Every single country in the world had suffered the wrath of the pandemic. The FM has proposed a bold budget. The fiscal deficit is 9.5% of GDP which has gone out of hands. The collections have all dipped because the economy had shrunk over the last 9 months by 70%. Government has gone in for privatisation which includes two nationalised banks and one insurance company. This will eventually bring in more growth and professionalism. The monetization value from disinvestment will bring in more capital for infrastructure development. This will be the thrust to bring India’s growth into double figures by 2023.In spite of the pandemic, FDIs continue to come into the country. The Government has put lot of emphasis on railways. Modernisation of railways is the need of the hour. The Mumbai-Delhi, Mumbai-Bangalore industrial corridor will bring about rapid growth in freight movement. Huge amounts have been spent on National Highway development which is commendable. This road network will also help the farmers. Agricultural sector grew 3.5% during the lockdown and the credit for this achievement should go to our better roads and railway network.

Exports have been one of the areas which India needs to focus now. The new policy of setting up textile parks all over India will bring in tremendous boost to the industry. This will also generate more employment particularly in rural areas. The industrial corridor will connect smaller towns to the metros which means more jobs will be created in places where people are. Automobile sector has been doing pretty well post lockdown. Every car, every truck on the road means more jobs. The new scrapping policy about to be proposed will be a tremendous blessing for the auto sector as demand will rise. It will even help in improving the environment.

Healthcare has taken the center stage in this year’s budget which was quite obvious. Vaccination drive has commenced but still there are several ambiguities around these vaccines. The best business someone can start now is to get into cold storages. Government is also giving tax incentives for refrigerated vans. Digitisation is also picking up pace. Youngsters today have the opportunity to learn these new skills. The Government has made significant changes in the companies act over the period of time to ease doing of business. Start-ups will continue to get tax benefits for one more year. Compliance costs has also reduced drastically and the process itself has become simplified. Our corporate rate of tax is one of the lowest in the world. Personal income tax is also fairly low if you avail the tax benefits. The enterprising people will benefit. When youngsters lost jobs during the lockdown, many went into their own business. To make things easy, large amount of loans are now accessible. Now there is a reverse flow in ‘brain drain’’ mainly from US and middle-east.

There has not been much in the budget for individual tax payers. The best way to cut down on corruption is to have faceless interaction with authorities. The total income tax revenue from individuals will be more than tax from companies. More people are today ready to disclose their assets and file income tax. This budget is a step in the right direction. Not everything can start and end with a budget. Hence we can expect more announcement/changes in the months to come.

In total around 430 people attended. Mr.Ranina also took questions from the participants who joined from the different parts of the country. 

This virtual session was organised together with Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), Forum of Free Enterprises, Goa Chamber of Commerce, ICAI-Goa Chapter and Nani A. Palhiwala Trust, Mumbai.

Dr. Bose Nair, VP-WTC welcomed the gathering and moderated the session, while Mr. Israr Ahmed, Regional Chairman (South)-FIEO made the introductory remarks. Senior Economist Mr. S. S. Bhandare concluded and proposed the vote of thanks.

The video recording of the event can be viewed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYG7ivwu00