Arthsankalp - A Panel Discussion on Union Budget 2008
February 29 and March 2, 2008

As has been the tradition at SPJIMR the Union Budget 08-09 was telecast live for the participants in the college auditorium. The event was organized by the Economic Forum 07, a student committee of SPJIMR under the banner of their flagship event 'ARTHSANKALP'.

The live telecast of the budget started with a quiz conducted by one of the PGDM participants, Siddartha Natrajan on the budget theme. It received an enthusiastic response from the participants.

The differentiation factor this year was that on-the-spot highlights of the budget were prepared and screened on a side screen. The highlights were interspersed with SENSEX data reflecting the market sentiments on the FM's decisions. This created a great enthusiasm and understanding among the participants of the dynamics of the markets and the importance of the macro-economic effects of such a national event. The participants were very enthusiastic about the FM's stance on the social sector in the budget as they were gearing up to go on for their summer projects in this sector.

To take the endeavor forward a panel discussion on the post budget analysis was organised on 2nd March at the SPJIMR auditorium. The panel consisted of experts from the industry, and the academia, regulators, consultants, the media and economists. The discussion was moderated by Ms. Mini Menon (Senior Editor and Head of News Features - UTV). The esteemed panel constituted Mr. Sandeep Shanbhag (Personal Finance), Mr. S. Naren (Head Equity- ICICI Prudential), Ms. Ashima Goyal (Professor - IGIDR) and Prof. Jiban Mukhopadhyay, SPJIMR (Ex Economic Advisor - TATA Group).

Students participated with great enthusiasm which made it a truely interactive session. Various insightful points were raised regarding oil bonds (which are like subsidies) that do not find representation in the budget due to the cash basis of accounting. If one were to include these, then the fiscal deficit rises to levels much higher than claimed by the Finance Minister.

The big issue of the loan waiver for the farmer was also discussed. The very basis of the waiver was found to be weak as the farmers were mainly indebted to the local money lenders and not the PSU's. Moreover, the onetime repayment was heavily criticized as it was contributing to the deterioration of the credit culture. Instead, one of the panelists suggested that the ratio of repayment should have been 1:4 (1 part paid by the farmers and the remaining to be paid by the government) so that some sense of the credit culture remains.

One interesting statistic mentioned was that only 3% of the population pays tax out of which 2% pay tax compulsorily (salaried employees) hence only 1% pay tax voluntarily. This needs to improve if the tax- GDP ratio has to rise to higher levels.

Such discussions were highly appreciated by the participants making ARTHSANKALP'a successful initiative.