New Delhi The verdict is out. But sorry, this doesn't allow the Finance Minister any comfort to do a song and dance about his Union Budget unveiled on Tuesday.
In an instant poll conducted by IBNlive.com across the spectrum - housewives, students, self-employeds, salaried class and even NRIs - P Chidambaram's Budget didn't manage any impressive score.
Housewives were the most vocal of the lot with 40 per cent of the respondents giving a thumbs-down. They rated the Budget 'bad'. In his Budget, Chidambaram didn't have much for the housewife even though he repeatedly mentioned how he has brought in gender-budgeting into economic policy-making.
Domestic LPG prices, for instance, remained same despite the Budget announcement of a lower central sales tax after he extended 'declared goods' status for LPG supplied for domestic use.
The fact that the Budget made some very common items of household use - like glassware, tableware, kitchenware, soaps, biscuits, umbrellas, henna powder, vanaspati, sweets - dearer seems to have not gone down well with the housewife.
So, it's not surprising that only 34 per cent of housewives found in the Bugget 'good', 26 per cent put it in the 'average' category.
Interestingly, Chidambaram's wife had given full marks to the Finance Minister for his 'innovative Budget'.
Students, too, were not really ecstatic. Over 24 per cent of all the students who voted rated the Budget as 'bad' while 37 per cent found it 'good' and another 39 per cent found it 'average'.
From the students' point of view, the Budget makes printing and writing papers, soft drinks, ice creams, various plastic products, instant food and dairy products cheaper. There are also incentives for the girl students in the Budget.
Yet, what seems to have hurt the tech-savvy students community is the taxes on computer and some of the computer software. Though, it emerged later that the new taxes are unlikely to lead to any hike in the prices of computer sets as traders can claim Cenvet on it, the initial rumours about an immediate price rise in IT products seem to have done the damage.
The self-employed individuals, too, are dithering to give the Finance Minister a high score. While 39 per cent of all self-employed participants of the poll found the Budget 'good'- the highest among all the five segments - 30 each voted it 'average' and 'bad'.
Interestingly, this is in spite of the fact that most of the self-employed people are generally engaged in the services sector and this is the segment which has taken the biggest hit in the Budget - service tax is up now at 12 per cent and several new areas have been brought under its ambit.
The salaried class seems to have learnt to go easy with the Budget. Time and again it's this segment of people who are made to bear most of the burden of the government exchequer. The service tax burden, for instance. As it spreads its tentacles wider and wider, it's the middle-class who takes the hit.
There were some good news though. One can now claim tax rebates on fixed deposits in banks, the one-by-six scheme for filing tax returns stands abolished and the ceiling of Rs 10,000 per annum for investments in pension policies under section 80CCC removed. FBT rationalised in respect of superannuation contribution - there are quite a few.
The Budget hardly had anything to woo the NRIs. Yet 34 per cent of NRIs found it 'good' and 30 rated it as 'average'. Equally, 36 per cent of those who voted found it 'bad'.
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