Robin Hood Budget

Here are some highlights on the Indian budget:

• For income upto Rs 1,50,000 tax liability will be nil, between Rs 1,50,000 and Rs 3,00,000 tax liability will be 10% , from 3 lakh to 5 lakh tax liability will be 20%, from 5 lakh upwards it will be 30%
• No change in surcharge of corporate tax
• 5 year tax holiday for hospitals especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities
• Central sales tax cut from 3% to 2%
• Govt withdraws banking transaction tax
• Levy on STT only on option premiums
• Commodities transaction tax introduced like STT
• Short term capital gains to be taxed at 15% instead of the previous 10%
• STT Will be treated as an expense rather than a Tax (its worst than the Short term capital gain increase to 15% for traders)
• 5 year tax holiday to 2,3& 4 star hotels in UNESCO declared heritage site areas
• Dividend of subsidiary company will be exempt from DDT
• Duty on 2 wheelers reduced from 16 to 12%
• Excise on small cars reduced to 14%
• Excise on pharma goods slashed to 14%
• Reduce duties on steel melting scrap, aluminum scrap
• Total estimate of Farmer loans being waived is Rs. 60,000 Cr.

All in all an OK to bad budget (ok for common man & bad for stock market man), unless if you are a farmer then good for you, but the interesting thing will be to see how the money will be allocated to the Farmer loan waiver scheme cause that matter has been alluded & not even accounted for in the budget, ofcourse an easy way should be diluting stake in a few state owned companies, rather than even thinking of any further tax levy. Also the tinkering with stock markets was uncalled for & not needed after a crash of this proportion, but since it will affect the FII's in no way, the retail suffering is ignored & not that it will generate any substantial revenues for the govt. Well atleast on the bright side the long term capital gain was left untouched. So will the short term players run to book profits before before 31st March ? Which profits, all short term profit gone with the crash. So the taxes (direct & indirect) continues & so does the Robin hood budget, seems the Govt is more happy pleasing the Left rather than the public, the corporate, the money making people, hope they don't kill the goose giving the golden egg too much.

So still no bail out for the bulls with the world markets weak & budget aggravating our weakness, seems the FM has laid out seeds for a future Bear Market.

Technically we remain as is, same as posted in the "Moment of truth" below.