A tepid budget by all accounts

Jimmy Patel, CEO-Quantum AMC

''This was, in my view, a tepid budget by all accounts. Neither any clutter breaking reform nor, thankfully, any major populist measure given the fact that state elections are around the corner, were to be seen.

The build-up to the taxation proposition was great but the final outcome fizzled out, thoughts of tax cuts across the board and simplification of processes have not been addressed, there has been some relief for people in the Rs2.5 lakh to Rs5 lakh tax bracket though. Small businesses were also given some relief.

As is the wont of the NDA, the budget has focused on the rural sector and a marginal push to infrastructure in terms of road expansion and railways has been given.

In terms of digital payments – the Aadhaar Pay In app and withdrawal of service charge on rail ticket booked through IRCTC etc. are small steps toward digital payments, a lot more could have been done here to make the economy even more digital, not much else was disclosed on this front.

While the clean-up of political funding is also a good initiative in the budget, it will require tremendous political will to implement this satisfactorily.

In this budget too there was no major relief  for mutual funds and the advantages that investors could have by investing in them.

Overall a tepid budget – neither great nor bad.''