Will be able to reap benefits of PSU divestment only in next financial year

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke to Swaminathan Aiyar and Nayantara Rai of ET NOW on the impact of her second budget and what’s next for the economy. Edited excerptsThe market has reacted poorly to the Budget. What do you think they misunderstood? Today the stock market was not in full force and I guess we will have to wait till Monday. I thought we have been very responsible in our numbers...we have said very clearly private investments will happen when it will happen...we have already given a corporate tax rate cut and I am sure it will happen in due time. The government has been spending and growth in capex in the last seveneight months is there for everyone to see. Now, will we continue doing that? Yes, of course...our expenditure commitment on infrastructure is well on course.Have you been very ambitious on the disinvestment front?To be fair to the disinvestment department, it was in July that I announced it (the targets) and by February, they had done all the necessary leg work … and it is going to happen in a couple of months. Certainly, I will not benefit in this financial year by their sale but...it is going to happen in the next financial year.There is talk of flight of capital. Do you think more could have been done to make the capital markets robust?At this rate you will tell me (about) everything that is not done and forget what I have done... I have addressed DDT, I have addressed personal income tax, I have addressed corporate tax ... you were telling me economy is going through a tough time... despite all that, we have been bold enough to take a considered call on all this.There is an attempt to catch rich people trying to escape tax and become NRIs...It is not a question of catching, it is more a question of recognising that...you are losing out on a lot of people who are neither paying here nor paying elsewhere.So, it is very clear they want to escape tax?Yes, but then if my taxes are now so favourable, I would rather have them here... and pay tax also. Now, if the rates are unfavourable and they are going out, you can blame me...There is going to be a 1% TDS levy on ecommerce companies. Is this a new source of revenue?What is a TDS eventually? If you are taxpayer, that is going to be offset. So, that is not a new tax, that is not an additional burden...why should every TDS be seen as an additional tax when you are given an option to offset it.By increasing customs duty you talked about how you want to have a level playing field. Are you perhaps sending a signal that Make in India, manufacturing, SMEs will only thrive when you raise customs duty?Two things guided us in making that list on whom the import duty has been levied. One, the kind of goods that are coming... which are manufactured in India, largely by MSMEs and certainly equal, if not better quality, to most of them. Should we import goods which we are producing anyway...only because they are coming dirt cheap? Are they essential to our consumption? We have to...decide at the cost of dumping of goods...What you are saying goes completely against the fundamental premises of free trade.I agree absolutely, but dumping is not free trade either.There is a WTO mechanism to take care of dumping...The mechanism that exists, not just in India, but in any other country against dumping... will have to be strengthened...but till then, I will not allow Indian industries to die, particularly those in the minuscule, micro medium sector.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2vAduvN