'This is a balanced Budget'

Rajan Mittal

I think the finance minister's growth target of 5.4 per cent is achievable. This is a balanced Budget. There is a high impetus on infrastructure growth, which will entail high spending in telecom, ports, roads and airports. The other factor is of divestment which has been talked about in the Budget. It seems to be a step in the right direction.

FM has tried to restructure the custom duties. And on cellular handsets in particular, the duty has been brought to 10 per cent from almost 25 per cent. This will help in the growth of the cellular industry as till date almost 80 per cent of the handsets were being provided by the grey market leading to substandard availability of the handsets.

Other structural duty changes, which needs to be seen in details are how they will impact the manufacturing sector. The highlights of the Budget are incentives given to sectors like textiles, steel, telecom, entertainment and agriculture.

Rajan Mittal is joint managing director, Bharti Enterprises.

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