Budget 2019 gives little to the rich, a lot to low income group: Here’s who gains and how much

Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on February 1 presented the Interim Budget 2019 and announced reliefs for taxpayers, farmers and several measures to boost consumption.

Rajesh Saluja, CEO & MD, ASK Wealth Advisors gives his likes and dislikes about the Interim 2019 budget date.

What Works?

Pre-Election Growth Oriented Budget 2019: Consumption gets Rs 1 trillion, a quadruple benefit to the real estate. Farmers, unorganised sector workers and middle class benefit.

The single biggest highlight was consumption sector getting Rs 1 trillion boost (with 75:25 rural: urban share). This would restart the rural growth engine and give a fillip to urban consumption too. It will also have a cascading effect on investment in the medium term. For real estate, there is something for all four players - buyers, residents, taxpayers, builders.

Highlights of last five year and the vision of the next 10 years were the other major takeaways.

Good initiatives are being put in place for increasing tax compliance and interaction with the Income Tax Department.

What does not work?

Assumptions around the funding of the direct subsidies were not very clear and could be a challenge.

Measures related to the corporate sector/MMSE (e.g., MAT, SEZs, Doing Business, etc.) were ignored.

Disinvestment targets have not been met and have been a big disappointment. Acceptance of the same with an action plan on how it will be achieved was missing.

No clear strategy around job creation.