A fiscally heavy straight bat

Dr. Ajit Ranade,
Chief Economist, The Aditya Birla Group
Business Standard
1 March 2005

Cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar’s batting style was influenced by years of gulli cricket, which forces you to play your shots only between mid-on and mid-off.

Chidambaram’s Budget reminded me of this straight bat approach; defined by compulsions of the coalition dharma and the need for fiscal rectitude.

The corporate sector finally got parity in its tax rate with income tax for the highest bracket. But after taking into account the surcharge and changes in depreciation, the tax burden on corporates will not come down much, and may even increase a bit.

The focus on the common man has meant compromise on fiscal consolidation. To be fair, the fiscal deficit is also driven up by the finance commission recommendations and the decision to take disinvestment outside the Budget.

Hope the Finance Minister shows greater respect to the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act in his next outing.