Arun Firodia, Kinetic Group

Mumbai: Arun Firodia, chairman, Kinetic Group had expected a number of sops in Budget 2008-09, since it is an election year budget.

These sops are well designed and well targeted, he says. The more 'welcome' features, according to Firodia, are loan waivers for long suffering marginal farmers, reduction in personal income tax and reduction in cenvat in auto sector.

Part of the 'not so welcome' features, says Firodia, is the fact that revenue deficit continues to exist, and that non-plan expenditure is double that of plan expenditure. As a result, infrastructure may continue to languish, and the power sector may not get the desired boost.

Firodia says that it is now upto the private sector to rise to the occasion on these fronts.

The budget will help maintain GDP growth, thanks to the additional demand that will be created by the budget. However, the supply side bottlenecks are not being removed and that may lead to inflation.

On the balance it is a welcome budget. I will give it 8 out of 10.