Sir — People who had high hopes of a reformative agenda by the Narendra Modi Government will be disappointed by the routine-style Budget. Fiscal discipline, simplified tax regime with tax-rationalisation and drastic steps to curb black money were missing from an otherwise competent Budget.
The Indian economy has a parallel flow of black economy. Steps could have been announced so that a large chunk of the black money would be ‘whitened’, giving the exchequer huge sums which could be utilised for national development and reduction of inflation.
Small cuts in excise duty are absorbed by manufacturers through rise in ex-factory prices, giving no practical relief to consumers. There should be fixed slabs for excise and custom duties, abolishing all additives like cess and surcharges. Whenever duty on a commodity is to be changed, the slab should be changed so that the effect of duty-change can be available to consumers.
A meeting of State authorities should be called so that the country can have a uniform value-added tax structure for a uniform ‘maximum retail price’ throughout the country. Presently, even essential commodities like petroleum products have largely varying MRPs in different States, leading to chaos.