At a first look, the Budget 2007 doesn’t look positive at all. The budget seems to encourage more black money than distribution of wealth in a legitimate way. For example, take a look at Fringe Benefit Tax on ESOPs. Or tax rate hike on dividends. These things take a toll on long term commitments to employers and markets. In turn, employers and companies may look towards using these monies in other ways that give more benefit and less taxation.

When we are targeting a GDP growth of 10%, increasing the income tax exemption limits by Rs10,000.00 is not a great benefit at all.

Increasing education cess to 3% is going to take a toll on high income groups.

Just to show more allocations for certain sectors, the tax payer is tolled a lot, both directly and indirectly. This is not good.

Fueled by the drop in NASDAQ et al, markets fell globally for the last 24 hours. India’s SENSEX saw a 4%+ dip on a single day. Even on a budget day, the market just crashed before the budget session started. Very interesting.

The US markets show a positive sign in the last hour or so, let us see what ripple effect they can bring for the next few hours/days.

The railway budget of 2007 is mostly impressive. Expected profit for 2006-2007 is 20,000 crores (approx 4.5B USD.) Here is a quick summary on Economic Times. Some of the geeky ideas are:

• Ticket Collectors having PDAs
• e-Ticket vending thru ATMs and petrol pumps.
• Smart travel cards

Here are some good proposals:

• Lower berth quota for senior citizens and women older than 45

Here are some pain points 🙂

• Increasing sleeper class berths in a coach from 72 to 84 (it really gets crammed!)

Overall, looks good!

Ratan Tata, 69, now has the distinction of being the oldest Indian to fly a fighter jet. In fact, he might be one of the very few Indians to be air-borne on a F-18. Billion people of this nation have a lot to learn from his passion for not only what he does, but also for what he likes.