Run up to Budget 2013

So the growth targets have been lowered. Budget is round the corner, tax collections are low, there has be no sale of PSUs, the sale of spectrum has not been successful, inflation is high, diesel and gas prices are slowly creeping up, productions are being slashed, dollar to rupee parity is a constant challenge, Gold import is being controlled, FDI inflow has reduced, trade deficit has grown, debt to GDP has increased, inflation is out of control. How do we douse this wild fire without affecting the election interest? Use a spoonful of water! Cut lending rate by 0.25 points. 

The govt, will make another announcement and push the stock market and the rupee, the smart punters will square up positions over the end of the week. The common citizen will lose! Hence, expect high taxes for high income, high service tax rates, excise and custom rates to change and SOP's to be reduced. What else? Open the economy. The FDI scene with Ikea and Walmart and tax issues of Vodafone and now Shell, have sent wrong signals.

The Jet JV with Etihad has ground to a halt because of these uncertainties. Then Air Asia has decided to join the fray with Tata's and the Bhatia's. Whatever happened to Kingfisher?

The stock market is constantly slipping on uncertainty factor. So the rescue is becoming more difficult.

To top this all is the nationwide strike of banks and utilities. Violence across the country and the daily revelations of hefty bribes being paid for doing things that should have been done in the normal course.All the wasted infrastructure projects lying in ruins due to bleeding finances. The real estate prices are growing, as all this wealth is being directed there.

So let us take this forward. The bank finances all stock and debtors. The more you can offer, larger the limits. Hence, the slower your sales and faster your production, greater are your stocks and debtors. Dead and slow moving stocks and bad debts, will now add to your misery. The FI will encourage you to challenge the supply push model. In a negative demand market, this is the best way to kill the company. Then what happens next?

Have you noticed the Q3 bank results? Have you seen how good these are? How does a bank make money? By selling debt instruments. So who are they financing? Check out industry results. They are poor. Check our projected GDP growth, same answer, poor. So work out the correlation. Companies are running out of steam, negative working capital is being financed by banks. Capex would have gone the ECB way, working capital forex is not permitted by FEMA. So there it is! Look out for more corporate restructuring and cost cutting! As accountants add value to the bottom line.

Most correction in policy like, GST has in effect been pushed back till after the elections. The states have agreed on the compensation package so what does that mean? Now states will push for it and the Centre will be undecided. Such is bureaucratic life. For every twisted solution, there is a new and more complicated problem.

The solution? A patriotic Indian, simple compliance process, effective implementation, short turn around time and visible economic improvement.

(The writer is Assistant Professor, Faculty of Management Studies, Manav Rachna International University & Mr. J.S. Jassal, CA)

The budget as is seen by the common Indian...

1. The presentation of the central budget is keenly awaited by every individual, family and the nation as a whole as it impacts them, this way or that way. It also impacts the government departments, state governments as every segment of society is connected to it. 

2. The budget to be presented on 28th February, 2013 shall be for the year 2013-14. The budget is being prepared and presented in the precarious economic conditions of the economy which is suffering from high rate of inflation and falling economic growth. The budget should therefore, aim at not only taming the price rise but also ensure the faster forward movement of the economy. The other important aspect is the ensuing general elections to be held during 2014. So, therefore, this budget is special for the nation. 

3. However, what could be perspectives from the common man as to how it should be and what should be expected from this budget. The government has been giving statements every now and then that fiscal deficit is growing and is a matter of concern. Very right. Very high fiscal deficit is also one of the reasons for the high degree of inflation which may ultimately be a decisive factor in the general elections. 

This deficit which now stands at 5.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product is to be brought down to 4.8 percent by the next fiscal year. The objective is quite laudable. This not unattainable provided the revenues are generated and the in essential expenditures are curtailed. It has been often seen in the past that whenever the government reduced the tax rates, the amount of receipts bounced. People love to pay taxes. The lower rates shall also reduce the scope of tax avoidance and evasion. 

It is suggested that the tax limit in respect of income tax should be increased. This is needed in two views. Number one, it would leave more income in the hands of a common man who may be encouraged to spend more which is the core for the development. Number two, leaving more income would also ensure more real income in their hands on account of high single digit level inflation. The economy growth requires demand generation and the measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India exactly aim at that. The time has come to raise the exemption limit for the direct taxes. 

On the other hand, the implementation of GST ( Goods and Service Tax) should be expedited as this would ensure balancing the structural problems in the indirect taxes. The twin objectives should be the credit management and the widening of the tax net. The expectations of the people have increased particularly after the taking over of Shri P. Chidambaram as the Finance Minister. 

4. On the other hand, the wasteful expenditure needs to be sufficiently curtailed. The subsidies could be one of the targets. The burden of more than Rs. 1 lakh crore is required to be lightened. A clear road map needs to be set up to cap the subsidy bill. Investors' sentiments shall also have to properly exploited. The expenditure on the foreign jaunts is another sector. It is essential to see that expenditure on the plan sectors is increased which would ensure capital creation.

Budget 2013-14: Common man's wish list

The Budget for the FY 2013-14 is supposed to be the "budget of hopes" as it will be the last budget to be announced by ruling UPA. The Govt has already started taking tough decisions in the form of reform push that includes partial deregulation of fuel prices including LPG, rail fare hike and subsidy reforms.

The common man is concerned about how he is going to be impacted by the outcome of the budget like the income tax slab. Here is a glimpse of common man's expectations from the union budget 2013-14.

The salaried person is expecting the basic tax slab to be increased from the 2 lakh to 3 lakh per annum as Inflation has made a big hole in his pocket. Senior citizens are also expecting the existing limit be hiked to 4 lakh. Owing to the rise in fuel costs the conveyance allowance should also be hiked from Rs. 800 to Rs. 2000 per month. The government should re- look at the rebate on interest on home loan which is currently capped at 1.5 Lakh.

There is demand from a wider section that a separate provision should be made for the principal loan amount which currently is included in 80C (under which maximum limit is one lakh all inclusive).The students also have to bear the brunt of higher loan regime. Today, it is easy to buy a car than availing education in India. Government should consider substantial reduction of education loan for students. The medical insurance premium limit which is rupees fifteen thousand currently can be hiked to rupees thirty thousand.

In addition to above there are few more suggestions to suffice the upcoming budget:

Restore 80CCF deduction for investment in Infrastructure Bonds with revised limit of maximum benefit upto Rs 50,000/-. It will help infrastructure companies to raise money.

Increase House Rent Allowance.

Restore MAT from 18.5 percent to 15% which will entice foreign investors to invest in India.

Reduce lock in period for tax saving FDR from 5 years to 3 years.

Enhance the threshold limit of Rajiv Gandhi Equity Saving scheme (section 80CCG) for first time investors, which is currently Rs. 10 lakh One hopes that Finance Minister P Chidambaram's Budget 2013 will be more than mere promises and is able to give more headroom to the common man who is already reeling under spiraling price rise.

(The writer is Associate Professor, Manav Rachna International University, M.Com & Doctorate in Finance)

Budget 2013: Decoding key concepts and jargon from FM's speech

The government's budget exercise is no different from the way households manage their finances. But those big words finance ministers read out in their budget speeches tend to sound intimidating. ET simplifies key concepts and jargon for you:

1) Government Revenues & Spending... 

Government's budget is largely about revenues and expenditure. These are divided under two heads: revenue and capital. Spending is also split into plan and non-plan.

Revenue receipt/expenditure: All receipts, such as taxes, and expenditure, like salaries, subsidies and interest payments that in general do not entail sale or creation of assets, fall under the revenue account.

Capital receipt/expenditure: Capital account shows all receipts from liquidating (e.g., selling shares in a public sector company) assets and spending to create assets (e.g., lending to receive interest).

Revenue/captial budget: The government has to prepare a Revenue Budget (detailing revenue receipts & revenue expenditure) and a Capital Budget (capital receipts and capital expenditure).

A. Revenues

Gross tax revenue: The total tax received by the government from which it has to pay the states their share as mandated by the relevant finance commission. The balance is available to the Union government.

Non-tax revenue: The main receipts under this head are interest on loans given by the government, and dividends and profits received from PSUs. The government also earns from various services, including public services, it provides. Of this, only the Railways is a separate department, though all its receipts and expenditure are routed through the Consolidated Fund of India.

Capital receipts: These include recoveries of loans and advances.

Miscellaneous capital receipts: These are primarily receipts from PSU disinvestment.

B. Expenditure

Before we understand government spending, it is important to know the concept of plan and non-plan spending and the Central Plan

Gross budgetary support: The Five-Year Plans are split into five annual plans. The funding of the Plan is split almost evenly between government support (from the budget) and internal and extra-budgetary resources of state-owned enterprises. The government's support to the Plan, which includes state plans, is called Gross Budgetary Support.

Plan expenditure: This is essentially the budget support to the annual plans. This is typically considered developmental spending (on health, education, infrastructure and social goals). Like all budget heads, it is also split into revenue and capital components.

Non-plan expenditure: This is in the nature of consumption expenditure, broadly corresponding to revenue expenditure: interest payments, subsidies, salaries, defence & pensions. Its 'capital' component is small, the largest chunk being defence.

2) ...And The Shortfall 

When government's expenditure exceeds its receipts, it has to borrow to meet the shortfall. This deficit has material implication for the economy as bridging it increases public debt and eats up revenues through higher interest payments.

Public debt: The money borrowed by the government is eventually a burden on the people of India, and is, therefore, called public debt. It is split into two heads: internal debt (money borrowed within the country) and external debt (funds borrowed from non-Indian sources).

Fiscal deficit: The money borrowed by the government is eventually a burden on the people of India, and is, therefore, called public debt. It is split into two heads: internal debt (money borrowed within the country) and external debt (funds borrowed from non-Indian sources). Usually the government spends more than what it earns through various sources. This shortfall, which is met with borrowed funds, is called fiscal deficit. Technically, it is the excess of government expenditure over 'non-borrowed receipts' — revenue receipts plus loan repayments received by the govt plus miscellaneous capital receipts.

Revenue Deficit: It is the excess of revenue expenditure over revenue receipts. All expenditure on revenue account should ideally be met from receipts on revenue account; the revenue deficit should be zero. In such a situation, the government borrowing will not be for consumption but for creation of assets.

Effective revenue deficit: This is an even tighter number than the revenue deficit. It is revenue deficit less grants for creation of capital assets.

Primary deficit: It is the fiscal deficit less interest payments made by the government on its earlier borrowings.

Deficit and GDP: Apart from the numbers in rupees, the budget document also mentions deficit as a percentage of GDP. This is because in absolute terms, the fiscal deficit may be large, but if it is small compared to the size of the economy, then it's not such a bad thing, especially if it is being used to create production capacities.

FRBM ACT: The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act was enacted in 2003 and required the elimination of revenue deficit and reduction of fiscal deficit to 3% of GDP. The financial crisis and the subsequent slowdown had forced the government to abandon the path of fiscal consolidation for a while. A new fiscal consolidation road map is likely to be announced this year.

Ways and means advances: When state governments or the centre face temporary mismatches then the RBI helps them manage these through temporary advances called ways and means advances.

Securities against small savings: The govt meets a small part of its loan requirement by appropriating small-savings collection by issuing securities to the fund.

Treasury bills (T-bills): These are bonds (debt securities) with maturity of less than a year. These are issued to meet short-term mismatches in receipts and expenditure. Bonds of longer maturity are called dated securities.

3) How The Govt Taxes You

The central government imposes many taxes, but they can be divided into two broad categories: Direct Tax and Indirect Tax

Direct tax

This is the tax that business, companies , firms and partnerships and we all pay from our income or wealth. It is called direct tax because the person who pays the tax has to also bear the burden of the tax.

Corporation (corporate) tax: It is the tax that India Inc pays on its profits. It is the single biggest source of tax for govt.

Taxes on income other than corporation tax: It's income-tax paid by 'non-corporate assesses' such as individuals and Hindu undivided family (HUF).

Securities transaction tax (STT): STT is the small tax you need to pay on the total amount you pay or receive when you buy or sell shares on stock exchanges or transact in mutual funds. This is in the nature of a transaction tax.
Wealth tax: This is the tax individuals pay on their accumulated wealth. It is levied on individuals, HUFs and companies at the rate of 1% on the amount by which the net wealth exceeds Rs 30 lakh.

Capital gains tax: It is the tax levied on profit or gain made on sale of a capital asset such as shares, house, commercial property. Long-term capital gains tax is levied at 10% & short term at the marginal income-tax rate of an assesse.

Dividend distribution tax (DDT): Dividends are tax free in the hands of investors but the entity distributing dividends to investors pays DDT to govt.

Minimum alternate tax (MAT): It is often the case that companies report profits but pay no tax. Such cos have to pay a certain minimum tax on their book profits.

Withholding tax: This is a small tax deducted whenever a payment is made that is like an income for the receiver such as dividends, interest, royalty or even capital gains.

Indirect tax

It's essentially a tax on our expenditure, and includes customs, excise and service tax. It is called indirect tax because the tax is paid to the government by the person selling the good or providing service but its final burden is on the consumer. It is considered a 'regressive' tax as the burden is equal whether you're rich or poor.

Customs: Anything purchased from another country and brought into India is subject to this tax. It serves a twin purpose, yielding revenues for the government and protecting Indian industry.

Union excise duty: This is a duty imposed on goods manufactured in the country.

Service tax: It is a tax on services rendered.

GST: A proposed single tax that will replace the plethora of indirect taxes. This will make tax administration effective, compliance easy and evasion difficult. Consumers will benefit from the decline in the incidence of tax.

4) Reading The Balance Sheet

Govt prepares its accounts on a cash basis as opposed to accrual basis by companies.

Annual financial statement: This document details the govt's receipts and expenditure for the financial year. This 16-page document is actually the annual budget, as stated in the Constitution. It is divided into three parts — Consolidated Fund, Contingency Fund and Public Account — each of which provides a statement of receipts and expenditure. Expenditure from the Consolidated Fund and Contingency Fund requires the nod of Parliament.

This document details the govt's receipts and expenditure for the financial year. This 16-page document is actually the annual budget, as stated in the Constitution. It is divided into three parts — Consolidated Fund, Contingency Fund and Public Account — each of which provides a statement of receipts and expenditure. Expenditure from the Consolidated Fund and Contingency Fund requires the nod of Parliament.
Finance bill: For most of us, this is the all important budget document. All tax measures are included in it. The memorandum, another document, explains the provisions of the Bill in simple terms.

Contingency fund: As the name suggests, any urgent or unforeseen expenditure is met from this Rs 500 crore fund, which is at the disposal of the President. The amount withdrawn is returned from the Consolidated Fund.

Public account: This is an account where the government acts more like a banker, as this is a collection of money belonging to others such as public provident fund. 

5) The Social Agenda 

Swavalamban

This is a co-contributory scheme to promote voluntary retirement savings towards pensions. The government makes a contribution to NPS account of unorganized sector workers.

Aadhaar

It is a 12-digit individual identifi cation number that serves as a proof of identity and address, anywhere in India.

Bharat nirman

Bharat Nirman is UPA's ambitious plan to build infrastructure in rural India: Irrigation, roads, water supply, housing, rural electrifi cation and rural telecom connectivity.

Food security act

The govt plans to provide highly subsidised foodgrain to majority of the population. It is expected to be rolled out in the next fi scal.

Swabhimaan

This is a government campaign to extend banking facilities through business correspondents to habitations having population in excess of 2,000.

Direct cash transfer of benefits

It is a poverty alleviation initiative under which welfare benefits are given directly to the poor in cash (in their bank accounts) rather than in the form of subsidies.

6) & Some More...

Direct taxes code (DTC) Bill

This is a comprehensive revamp of the income tax law that has been in the works for many years.

Abatement

This is like a discount with reference to taxes. Abatement is given when the tax is not levied on full amount but on a portion of the transaction.

Resources transferred to the states

The Centre gives funds to states in two ways: a share in taxes and budget support for their plans. These are largely in the nature of grants, and include those given to states for managing Centrally-sponsored schemes.

Disinvestment

The process of sale of government shares in state-owned entities.

Qualified foreign investors

Foreign individuals, groups or associations that are eligible to invest directly in India. They must be from countries that follow global anti-money laundering rules.

Viability-gap funding

Financial support to a public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure project to make it viable for the private-sector investor. 

MRIU and Economic Times Presents - 'Budget in the Classroom'

Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Manav Rachna International University (MRIU) in association with Economic Times brings to you Budget in the Classroom. ‘Budget in the Classroom’ is presented by the Economic Times Editorial Team and faculty members of FMS at MRIU led by Dr. Chavi Bhargava Sharma, Director, FMS and Mr. Umesh Kumar, Ex IEC, Dean, Faculty of Commerce & Humanities.

Over the next couple of week we will bring you experts comments, expectations and analysis of the budget by expert team in association with KPMG in India, academic partners of Manav Rachna International University. 

You can access 'Budget in the Classroom' directly at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/budgetclassroom2013.cms

4 Keys to Preparing for Your Career while in College

Your job is what you will be doing during the major portion of your life and it is what that will define how your life will be spent. You have to spend half of your waking hours on your job which is why this most critical decision of your life warrants for a lot more attention than what it currently gets.

Keeping in view the importance and magnitude of the impact of your job on your life, no amount of planning can be enough for it. Therefore, it is recommended that you start giving your job and career a serious thought early on. By ‘early’ we mean the times when you are at school and your fellows are still planning their proms and partying hard!

Yogi Berra very rightly once said that “It gets late early out there” and this is true for the job market as well. As soon as you are in your final study year, you need to start preparing the ground and get in touch with the job world out there.

Here is a guideline to help you get on with the act to get the early bird’s worm!

Find your passion – To start with, you must pay the utmost importance to your inner voice and ask yourself what is it that you will love to do for the rest of your life as Confucius’s words of wisdom - “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” - stand very valid even today.

Research & shortlist employers – After you are adequately sure of what you want to become, do your research and make a list of organizations that have the jobs that you are interested in. Scrutinize this list carefully and pick out the ones that you find in line with your personal values, work environment, lifestyle, compensation expectations or any other criteria that are in the value-list. Looking for information on employers can be tough but if you have the will, you will get your way. Make use of your network and contacts like your family & teachers; use the social media platforms like LinkedIn & Facebook; approach their current employees and ask them your questions and you will surely get the information that will bring out the true image of that organization’s ‘employer brand’.  

Be known – Once you have your wish-list of employers ready, make it a point to get in contact with them and never miss any opportunity to network with anyone from those organizations. You have a number of options to become a ‘familiar face’ to your target organizations. Think about doing your projects with those companies, find internship openings, add them to your LinkedIn network, get in touch with their hiring heads and make the best use of job fairs and on-campus events where your favorite employers are present. After making that first contact, never lose sight of them and find suitable occasions and events to keep reminding them of yourself until you are ready to apply for jobs following your passing out from college.

Persevere and succeed – There will be times when you might not find your way through the first time around but keep in mind that perseverance and a positive outlook is the key to success. Never let your beliefs waiver for a second and keep pushing ahead gently until you will land your dream job which is bound to get you to the top and expand your horizons so that you never have to ‘work a day in your life’.

3 Simple Tips for Delivering Memorable Presentations

Have you ever heard someone deliver a presentation that blew you away? To the point that where the presentation was spectacular but you didn't exactly know what made it so great? I’m sure you have. Like many things in life, there is a recipe for delivering great presentations that people will remember—just think about why people can easily remember things such as urban legends or silly jokes, but completely forget details mentioned in ground-breaking research. By using these three simple tips, you will be well on your way to delivering presentations that will stick in the minds of your listeners.

Tell Stories

Stories have been around since the beginning of civilization. Most of us love a great story, which is why movies, books, and life experiences are so interesting; they tell a story. If you want to find a way to capture people’s attentions, tell a compelling story. While there are many aspects to telling compelling tales, we will keep it simple for now: when putting together your presentation, think about relevant stories that will help your points stick in the minds of listeners.  You can do this by using concrete examples.

Concrete examples help communicate a message on a level that everyone can easily understand. When communicating an idea, you can use either abstract or concrete details. Here is a concrete illustration/story someone used that stuck in my head, so much so that I’m using it now. He said, “If you try to use a tablespoon to scoop ice cream, the spoon will bend, but if you try to use an ice cream scoop to stir tea it won’t work properly. The point is that if you are doing things that you aren’t equipped for, it can be much more challenging than if you use your strengths to your advantage.”

That concrete story/illustration has stuck with me for quite some time, and that story even comes to mind every time I see an ice cream scoop—proof that stories help to make ideas stick.

Be Personable

Being personable is probably one of the easiest, yet most overlooked, elements to delivering memorable presentations. Some of the best presenters are people who can simply be themselves: they are relaxed, can make you laugh, can mess up and play it off, and much more. By simply being yourself and not overly formal in your presentation, you can add an element that is unmatched—just be yourself and enjoy the ride.

Have One Main Point

Chip and Dan Heath, the authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die shared a great insight: “To say more than one thing is to say nothing”. This tells us why we don’t remember many of the presentations we hear—we don’t remember simply because there’s too much information. Now, this isn’t to suggest that you should over-simplify your message and literally only say one thing; the idea is to have one main point, and then have everything else or supporting that main point. You can even state your point in different ways to help drive the message home. One man focus may seem like a little, but if you were faced with the option of being able to present three points only to have no-one remember any of them a few months later, or being able to present one point and have your entire audience remember it after several months, your presentation would be considered to be more successful and indelible.

Remember to just keep things simple. This doesn't mean you can’t present complicated material—it just means you have to find ways to help make that information easier to understand. When information is easy to understand, it’s easier to remember. By using these three tips, your messages can resonate more with people and help you become a better presenter.