Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first budget of PM Narendra Modi’s newly elected government in the Parliament today (July 5). Nation Next spoke to a few well-known chartered accountants of Nagpur to know their analysis of the Union Budget 2019.

CA Tejinder Singh Rawal, Renowned Chartered Accountant 

There are some good changes in the Union Budget 2019, no doubt about that. But it is not as dynamic a budget as we were expecting. To quote the Finance Minister herself, we were expecting a budget, which will ?bring the animal spirit out of the entrepreneurs and the people. Unfortunately, nothing of that sort has happened in the budget.

Certain tax reforms, which the Finance Minister announced are good. We were expecting a big reform in the form of certain changes like withdrawal of long term capital gain on shares, which was proposed last year as well.

Government seems quite ambitious about spending on infrastructure. That’s a definitely a good thing. Since we are talking about having a $5 trillion economy in five years time, unless the economy grows at rate of 8% per annum, you can’t reach that target. There’s no roadmap to that. GDP is already down and so we are at 6% growth. The budget is not very clear about it. I feel it is a status quo budget, there’s nothing very remarkable about it.

CA Abhijit Kelkar, Regional Council Member  of ICAI

The Union Budget 2019 presented today by our Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seems to be inclusive and touching all spheres of economy. The Finance Minister showed the way through which, economy shall travel and who digitization and sector specific boost will be provided.

Be it farming, MSME sector, Banking, Environment, Education, Sports, etc, the budget tried to balance all the expectations.

Increasing interest deduction on housing loans, quarterly return for small traders, interlinking of PAN and Aadhar are welcome measures.

Also read: Union Budget 2019: What got Costlier, What got Cheaper

CA Suren Duragkar, Chairman, Nagpur Branch of ICAI  

This is a very good budget, which seems to be planned on the basis of the achievements of last 5 years of the Modi government. They have taken all measures, which will certainly create employment. Stress has also been given on agricultural development, infrastructure, social security, skill development, training, education and women empowerment.

With the budget, the Finance Minister has given support to all startups by giving instruction to CBDT for not asking the share premium details in Income tax Scrutiny. The finance minister has included 400 crore turnover companies in 25% tax net, which will benefit 99.3% out of the total companies in India.

The filing of quarterly GST returns by traders having turnover of Rs 5 crore, instead of monthly return is a good move. Giving pension to traders having turnover of Rs 1.5 crore through PM Karmayogi Mandhan Yojana is also a welcome move.

Promoting education and tourism to attract foreign students and tourist to India will help to get foreign currency and recognition to our country.

This is a balanced budget keeping in mind the present situation and challenges at global level.

CA Kirit Kalyani, Vice Chairman, WIRC of ICAI

“Some of the reforms announced will ensure desired growth. These reforms include:

? The startups, having huge potential of generating new employment opportunities, are being given a whole set of new tax benefits.

? Basic customs duty on certain items will be increased to ensure achieve the goal of Make in India.

? Import of Defence equipment not manufactured in India is exempted from basic customs duty. This shows a ‘No Compromise’ approach with regards to the crucial defence budget.

? To provide further impetus to concerned real estate developers and buying affordable housing costing less than Rs 45 lakh, additional deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on interest paid on loans borrowed up to 31 March 2020, is a good step.

? To ensure much needed social security measures for 3 crore retail traders, for the very first time, pension benefit is planned to be extended under Pradhan Mantri Karam Yogi Man Dhan Scheme.

Additional income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on the interest paid on the loans taken to purchase electric vehicles is really a futuristic step. It is going to reduce inflation in the long run, as the cost of imported fuel would get reduced because of gradual reduction in its demand.

To summarise, the favourable results of the budget proposals are expected to be witnessed in the coming years.”