Though this was huge opportunity for 400+ students to listen to great minds of the industry to come on stage and discuss certain areas of the Union Budget presented in Parliament. Prominent Speakers of the evening were Mr. S. Krishnan, Global Head of Taxation at Infosys Limited; Mr. Narender Jain,Chartered Accountant at NNMS Consulting, Bangalore and Mr. Vishweshwar , Sr.Director,Tax & Regulatory Services at Deloitte India, Bangalore. Represnting Syndicate Bank was Mr. R. Devanand .The panel discussion was mentored by Mr. A Srinivas, Assistant Editor at Business Line. 3 dignitaries on stage, 3 brands meeting together to make it possible , the campus interface to the corporate world.
The opening notes of discussion was presented by Prof. TS Ramachandran of Christ Univeristy and gave a glimse of how in 1982 the then Finance Minister Pranab Kumar Mukherjee presented his first Union Budget which focused mainly towards taxation. Over the years the focus has shifted as India went through radical changed in policies and during his 6th Union Budget FM focused on various areas including fiscal deficit, social reform investment, financial inclusion, long term plans of achieving growth. During the span of 29 years , FM was presenting his 6th Budget which itself has been a commendable job by himself. The macro picture being the matter of discussion.
Mr. R. Devanand also shared a few thoughts amongst us and appreciated the government for making the banks nationalized and then onwards making banking industry more responsible, reliable and safe. Two key point noted by him was that 158 banks shut down in USA for following a policy of ‘privatise the profits and socialize the losses’. Which did make sense and we all witness the turmoil in banking sector during 2008-09 . Secondly, he threw light on the present 70% workforce in banking industry which is about to retire within 5 years. Which means that banks would be hiring fresh talent from colleges. Positive news for students like us, still in PG final year. Also mentioned about micro-finance firm taking same path that of the US banks and following the same policy which might lead to another debacle. taking reference from the budget one important message to everyone was that still 5 lakh villages are still not connected to banks. So the growth prospects for banks is seen in the rural areas in the near future.
Mr. Krishnan, a very interesting individual with CA ceritification with a silent touch of humor attached to his speech quoted ‘ CA as a boring profession, which were actually words of her wife to him’. His mention of an imminent personality of Mr. Palkewala, a speaker whose regarded to be an analyst of the Union Budget gives speech for 2 hours in Vidhan Saudha. ( if anyone gets opportunity to listen to him then dont miss it!!). Some key points he showered his knowledge was-
•Document of economic survey, released day before the budget is presented is an important document which help companies plan the future course of action.
•Displayed the various documents which are presented to public which includes Budget at a glance, Budget with the speech, Finance Bill, Expenditure Budget, Implemented projects.
The speaker was keen in believing that the growth story of India is due to its demographic advantage. With exports rising by 29% Y2Y and import rose 19% Y2Y. Forex reserves touching $ 297.3 Trillion. Global GDP growth being 4.4% whereas India outpaced most of the countries and GDP growth rate being 8.4%. Developed countries still growing with 2.4% of growth rate.
•One issue raised was the there are several industries which have been under tax expemption, which makes no sense and leads to lower collection of taxes from it. Collection of taxes is considered to be driving force for governmental expenditure like salaries etc to its employees. On the other hand there was a new clause in the Budget which made the SEZ’s even to pay for the MAT ( Minimum Alternative Tax) of 18.5% to the government. This is considered to be negative news is because foreign companies opens its arm in India through SEZ’s for its tax liberation policy and changing the policy might make India less attractive investment location. Along side MAT even Dividend Distribution Tax will also be charged on several companies.
•Taking case of Taxation, Tax-GDP ratio was 9.8 has fallen drastically to 7.8. The two major reasons why this would have occurred is either the government is not able to collect taxes effectively or else the citizens of the state are not declaring the income properly.
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