Budget Blues

 Every time a budget was being presented, salaried employees used to crowd around the radio/TV to check if income tax rates were being reduced. Maybe corporates for the same reason- corporate tax on income, in their case. 

Today, the middle class is probably much better off than 20 years ago. So maybe the I.T. rates are less of a concern. But maybe they still look for other sops, particularly for senior citizens. Interest rates being low, their savings are not going to earn much, and surviving with greater medical expenses may be a challenge for some.

Farmers have nothing much to worry about, at least from the budget. Their demands are taken care of through other channels. Small businesses or potential entrepreneurs may look for entrepreneurship-boosting initiatives. 

Post Script: Taxing the Provident Fund interest seems like a bad idea to me. By this logic, rich farmers ought to be taxed before any more tax is levied on the same segment- the salaried service class.

Europe by Eurail

 Mediterranean Blue.

I made two different trips of Europe by Eurail, and these are some pics from the French leg of those. Except the last pic, which is from Greece. You can actually travel overnight sleeping on the train, to cut hotel costs, bathe up at railway stations, and see a city a day across Europe- many countries are covered by a single pass for unlimited travel for a fixed number of days-I took a 14 day pass. This is a good way to backpack and get more bang for your Euros.

Budgetary Musings

Why do we need a budget? To decide if the money is coming or going, of course.

If there is a lot of money coming in, it's a good thing, and it's called a surplus budget. Problem is, this happens only in Utopia (in case you didn't know, this does not actually exist). In the real world, there's more money going out than coming in, and that's not a good thing, generally. Unless you are the U.S.A.

So if there is more money going out than coming in, what do you do?

You spend less, theoretically. Practically, have you ever seen anyone do this? No, it's not macho at all. So, what else can you do? If you are the government, you can increase taxes. If all goods are already taxed enough, you introduce a service tax. If you run out of ideas, you can combine everything and call it a Goods and Services Tax.

But seriously, to quickly get to a surplus, we only need to introduce a spitting tax, on anyone who spits in a public place. Then you can laugh all the way to the bank.. Banks will also smile (if not laugh) and probably recover from their NPAs, or whatever they call them these days (stressed assets is a euphemism often heard).

My Budget

Today is India's budget day. So I thought I would set out my plans for the year.

1. Meet classmates of 30 years past at my IIMB alumni get-together later this year.

2. Celebrate at least 3-4 occasions with family in Pune/Hyderabad.

3. Teach innovatively/Write a few research papers that I enjoy.

4. Watch a few good films.

5. Read a few good books, and of course, not to disappoint you,

6. Write a few more blogs.

Sounds achievable to me, with no major fiscal deficits to account for.

Yeh Dil Maange More- Budget Blues

Long ago, a wise man from the Chinmaya mission spoke at Kirloskar Institute. He was hilarious, and spoke of a 'more'ist attitude among all of us. I want more of food, more of housing, and more cars, and so on. He pointed out in his easy style, that we don't need so much of this 'more' stuff. What would you do with more cars? More houses? Or many more such things?

The annual budget in our country leaves everyone wanting more, no matter what the FM comes up with. And why should every budget tinker with everything? Would it not help if we had a consistent policy for 3 -4 or so years on everything? The mystique would go out of the annual exercise. If tinkering and tweaking were needed, that could be done when needed. Individuals can also plan better when say, tax related to savings instruments remains stable. Corporates can do the same when the tax rates and profit expatriation or FDI policies remain stable.

We could have a mid term budget once in 2.5 years to sort out things that need sorting.

Mere Ghar Ka Budget

It is the day of the annual budget presentation for the Indian government today. If I were to make a monthly budget for even my own house, I would be thoroughly confused. But here is my feeble attempt.

Fuel- Price of petrol x 100 litres

Electricity- Too confusing, with all those slabs differently priced. At a guess, Rs. 2000 in the Nagpur summer- next 2 months.

Movies. Multiplex tickets- 240 and single theatre - 120 (for four films a month, two in each)

Groceries- When in town, 2000 Rs. a month.

Books- Ranging between 2000- 3000.

Phone- 1000.

Cable- Rs. 200. (mostly unused)

Wife, children- Attempt to keep their spending under control, usually unsuccessfully. So, no accounts.

Free- blogging, conversation (non-phone variety), Golf at the campus, walking- anywhere,

Any wonder that I do a lot of the last in my spare time?

Rail Gaadi

There are a variety of songs that feature the train in Hindi films. The big disaster of a film featuring a train was 'The Burning Train', fashioned after the 70s Hollywood disaster films like The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure etc..

'Rail gaadi', sung by Ashok Kumar the actor, was a unique song, almost a precursor of the rap songs of recent times. 'Gaadi bula rahi hai', sung by Kishore Kumar and filmed on Dharmendra, was a nice anthem song in the movie Dost. 'Chalna hi zindagi hai, chalti hi jaa rahi hai' was the main line in it.

Romancing the train, I mean the heroine on the train, we had two classics that I can remember. One was Dev Anand singing 'Hai Apna Dil to Awara, Na Jaane Kis Pe Aayega' in Solva Saal, and Rajesh Khanna singing 'Mere Sapnon Ki Raani kab Aayegi tu', in Aradhana, to a coy Sharmila Tagore traveling in a train. Both songs featured a mouth organ/harmonica, if I am not mistaken. Parineeta also had a train song, whose words I forget.

Why this lapse into remembering train songs? The railway budget triggered the memories. Like many other things, India can do a lot more than it has with its railway trains, which have an enviable reach, and for the common man, it is a comfortable way to travel even today.