Reactions on Union Budget 2011 from Dr. P. Nandagopal, MD & CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance

The budget is positive in its reform direction. The FM clearly stated that the new legislations regarding Insurance, Pensions and Banking would be tabled in this session of the Parliament. This is a welcome move considering that it took lot of time for evolving the consensus on the proposed reform especially about insurance.

On the direct taxes side, the clear reference to the DTC being effective from April 1, 2011 is again a positive statement considering that DTC would be a comprehensive code that would consolidate various aspects of income tax and hopefully address the major issue of treating the long term saving products differently from the short term saving products.

The fact that there are no new increases in the service and excise taxes is again a positive move. The Government thrust to move from a subsidized regime of essential commodities to a direct cash transfer to the BPL families would help the poor better and reduce substantially the inherent leakages leading to better fiscal deficit management

In the overall sense, I believe it’s a positive budget.