The Finance Minister has tried his best to meet the expectations despite a tight fiscal space. Since demand revival is key to India’s growth, he has boosted overall incomes by offering a host of exemptions of up to ₹4.44 lakh to individuals, besides announcing a universal social security system.

The Budget also focuses on agro-reform by supporting better irrigation facilities, extending more farm credit and moving towards a national agricultural market.

The increase in service tax from 12.36 per cent to 14 per cent and Central Excise duty rounded off to 12.5 per cent is in line towards the transition to GST to be introduced on April 1, 2016.

While reduction in corporate tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over next four years will boost investments and job creation, there has been an effort to improve the ease of doing business. Fourteen regulations have been integrated in the e-biz platform.

However, the Budget failed to address the problem of duty inversion. Besides higher excise duty and service tax, jump in clean energy cess on coal to ₹300 a tonne and 6.3 per cent hike in rail freight for coal will increase transportation costs.

Besides providing a boost to road construction, the Budget has also proposed to set up five ultra mega power projects that will unlock potential investments of ₹1 lakh crore. Overall, the Budget presented a blueprint towards achieving the vision of double-digit growth.

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