Ramakrishna Goverdhanam

Mobile handset prices will become more expensive as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today announced one percent hike in the Central Excise duty for 130 items, including phones. Come April 1 and central excise duty on mobile phones will be raised from the current four per cent to five per cent. "The increase in central excise duty is detrimental as it will make mobile phones more expensive and provide impetus to the grey/un-branded market," Nokia India VP and MD D Shivakumar said. According to business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, the overall budget may be positive, but no tax incentives to the telecom industry remains an area of concern. "The Budget 2011 covered too little on telecom, while this is one of the fastest growing sectors. (There were) no significant steps on the spectrum related issues," said the company Program Manager(ICT Practice - South Asia and Middle East) Parminder Kaur Saini. Telecom equipment manufacturer...

The main impetus of the budget is to improve the growth rate and get it to 9 percent in the near term and to a double digit rate in the medium to longer term. The other two areas of focus are Infrastructure development especially in Rural India and Improving Governance by shoring up Systems and bringing stricter control on institutions. Key points of the budget: The government is very keen on ensuring that inflation is curbed and food security is ensured for all citizens. Food items: Since inefficient distribution has been found to be the culprit for the sky rocketing of food prices, the FM has proposed to focus on reducing Production and Distributions bottlenecks. Food, vegetables, Meat etc will show an easing of prices in the medium term future. Education: A higher allotment of funds in the form of over 24% hike as compared to last year for the Education Sector. Income tax: More modernization of the taxation system is being mooted. A new form called "SUGAM...