Nothing transformational nor populist

Atul Kumar, Head-Equity, Quantum AMC

''The focus of this budget is on the rural and agriculture sector. Affordable housing has also been given a boost. There were some expectations of tax cuts or some announcements simplifying the tax structure, but it looks like we will have to wait for that to come. There were some changes, however - tax for small businesses was reduced to 25 per cent from 30 per cent and some relief to people from the lower income bracket.

A few steps were announced on generation and control of black money. Clean up of political funding is also a good initiative in the budget. These, and the focus on rural India are positive points  from  the long term perspective, if done in right earnest and implemented properly.

Overall, budget looks like a continuation of past budget of current NDA regime. There was nothing quite transformational nor populist, which was a fear given the upcoming state elections.