Budget Blues

"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it." ~ George W Bush.(when he was the President of the USA)

It’s fine for an American President to be dumb, but lets take a peak at what is it for us and how does it affect you, me & economy as a whole.

The important point is the soothing FM has done is on our psyche. The tax slabs have increased with the 0% rate being constant, the 10% rate has been extended till 5Lakh while the 20% till 8Lakh and thereafter 30%; he thus achieved the best of all the goodies.

Let’s now check out what’s becoming cheaper and what’s going costlier? A move beyond the budget is that fuel prices have been increased, expect long queues at the fuel stations this evening (I’ve filled it till brim in the morning, today)

Setting up new home with all the accessories then coming April, you would enjoy cheaper Electrical appliances like ovens, washing machines, dishwashers and juicers as reduction in customs duty on magnetrons (key component) reduced to 5% from 10%. Prices of refrigerators set to fall as exemptions were announced in customs duty.

As if the price war in the mobile space is not enough, we got double whammy with FM extending the validity of special additional duty till end March 2011 making mobile phones cheaper. And in a bid to encourage the domestic manufacturers, duty exemptions are now being extended to parts of battery chargers and hands-free headphones.

Ladies, you got your man cry at this: Gold Jewelry would be cheaper (though Gold seems to set to rise) as Rhodium – a precious metal used to polish, whose customs duty is reduced from 10% to 2%

Guys, nothing stops us: let’s splurge on our new time piece - watches set to be cheaper as an outright 4% exemption from special additional duty to pre-packaged imports for retail sales, that’s good news.

Guess going green has its own advantages with LED lights turning cheaper-central excise duty reduced to 4% from 8%, at par with Compact Fluroscent lamps.

New mommies add a cheer to your baby budget, as toys set to be cheaper with full exemption from excise duty. But, be aware of your purchase. (Recent China toy fiasco!)

Medical Equipment and Cable transmission are set to cheaper as the govt. gave sops on manufacturing of these items.

Following the tradition of the last few years, tobacco and its products are set to be costlier as Govt. proposes excise duty on all non-smoking tobacco such as scented tobacco, snuff, chewing tobacco etc. In addition, introduces a compounded levy scheme for chewing tobacco and branded un-manufactured tobacco based on the capacity of pouch packing machines.

So, save tax and invest wisely to buy the goods you wanted!!!

Happy Budgeting………

“A budget tells us what we can't afford, but it doesn't keep us from buying it.”~ William Feather