Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

47
Deepak Shenoy and Dheeraj Singh Budgetonomics Demystifying Budget 2013 Capital Mind with Deepak Shenoy and Dheeraj Singh

description

This book will change your life. You will be able to climb mountains, cross rivers, reap without sowing, make magic and be your own best friend. Actually, No. But we hope that got you interested. In a comedown of epic proportions, much about the Indian budget is about broken promises and high expectations. But the drama of the last day of February, when the finance minister usually delivers a long speech in parliament, is sometimes brushed off as an esoteric act that keeps politicians busy and mediapersons discussing fervently about how bad it is that we saw a Rs. 1.36 increase in the cost of non-phosphate fertilizer. We’re not saying non-phosphate fertilizer is not important. It is. It is hugely important. Largely, because some of the people for whom it is hugely important might buy this book. And that is never a problem for “our” budget. But read on and we hope to enlighten and educate you about the thing that marks the end of February.

Transcript of Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 1: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Deepak Shenoy and Dheeraj Singh

Budgetonomics Demystifying Budget 2013

Capital Mind with Deepak Shenoy and Dheeraj Singh

Page 2: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 2

Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5

What the Heck is a Budget? .......................................................................................................................................... 6

The Very Core Of It ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

If the budget is just a financial statement why all the buzz surrounding it? ..................................... 6

Revenue, Expenditure and Deficits ................................................................................................................... 7

The Budget, In Charts ................................................................................................................................................. 9

Government Revenue crosses 10 Lakh Crore in 2013-14 ......................................................................... 9

Expenditure growth at 16% Next Year ......................................................................................................... 11

Fiscal Deficit Looks Manageable, But This is a Budget ........................................................................... 12

Some Highlights of Budget 2013 ........................................................................................................................ 12

Huge Increase in Gross Borrowing ................................................................................................................. 12

Some Of Them Companies Pay Very Little!................................................................................................. 13

The government gets hyperactive in February and March ..................................................................... 16

The Budget For.... .......................................................................................................................................................... 17

For You and me - The Lowdown on Taxes ....................................................................................................... 18

Taxes Slashed Across The Board. ................................................................................................................... 18

Some Taxes Slashed? Tax Slabs Expanded? I might pay a little lesser tax? Maybe? ................... 18

So Nothing? No Taxes Slashed? I’ll pay MORE tax? ................................................................................. 18

So How Come I Pay More Tax? ........................................................................................................................ 18

I hope there’s no more bad news. .................................................................................................................. 19

Like? ......................................................................................................................................................................... 19

Okay, but I don’t smoke...................................................................................................................................... 19

Grr. What else? ...................................................................................................................................................... 19

Anything Good? .................................................................................................................................................... 20

For Startups: The Mixed Bag ................................................................................................................................. 21

The Return of the Rs. 1 Crore Angel, Or Something ................................................................................. 21

“Pass Through” Status Good For Angel Investors ...................................................................................... 21

Maybe Flipkart can Flip The FDI Probe Over .............................................................................................. 22

Page 3: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 3

SME factoring credit guarantees to SIDBI.................................................................................................... 22

MSME benefits to continue upto three years after ................................................................................... 22

Incubators for CSR ............................................................................................................................................... 22

SMEs can list without IPO with informed investors ................................................................................. 23

Unlisted Buy-Backs Get Taxed ......................................................................................................................... 23

The Budget for Traders and Investors .................................................................................................................... 25

STT Gets Slashed, CTT comes in.......................................................................................................................... 26

Mutual Fund STT Cut .......................................................................................................................................... 26

Futures STT cut to 1 basis point ..................................................................................................................... 27

Commodity Derivatives Taxed ......................................................................................................................... 27

Real Estate: Not a Happy Note ............................................................................................................................. 28

Home Loans Get Additional Tax Deduction on Interest, But Wait ....................................................... 28

Real Estate Transactions May Get Higher Service Tax Charge ............................................................. 28

TDS of 1% for property transactions ............................................................................................................. 29

Stamp Duty Is The Real Deal ........................................................................................................................... 30

Dividend Distribution Tax on Debt Funds Raised to 25% ........................................................................... 31

Foreign Investors ...................................................................................................................................................... 33

Foreigners Pay Lower Tax on Long Term Infra bonds ............................................................................. 33

GAAR Comes In Later .......................................................................................................................................... 33

Surprise: Residency not "sufficient" ............................................................................................................... 33

The Budget For Everyone Else ............................................................................................................................. 34

Royalty Payments Get a 25% Tax ................................................................................................................... 34

Invest Rs. 100 Cr. and get 15% Tax Deduction .......................................................................................... 34

No Cash for Political Investments .................................................................................................................. 34

Loopholes and Workarounds ..................................................................................................................................... 35

Keyman Insurance Loophole Plugged: All proceeds will be taxed .......................................................... 36

The Service Tax Amnesty Scheme ...................................................................................................................... 38

What We Lost: Over 573,000 cr. From Tax Benefits...................................................................................... 41

Corporates Eat Up 80,000 Cr. ........................................................................................................................... 41

Individuals Take 36,000 cr. of subsidies ....................................................................................................... 42

Page 4: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 4

Customs, Excise Duty and Service Tax .......................................................................................................... 43

Effective Tax Rate - the distribution ............................................................................................................. 45

Are these bad? ...................................................................................................................................................... 45

Closing Remarks ............................................................................................................................................................ 47

Contact: ................................................................................................................................................................... 47

Changes, Additions and All That

Version 2

Added new chapter on Revenue Foregone: How We lost 573,000 cr. To Tax Benefits

Cleaned up, used a better font and made things look better

Page 5: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 5

Introduction

This book will change your life. You will be able to climb mountains, cross rivers, reap without

sowing, make magic and be your own best friend.

Actually, No. But we hope that got you interested.

In a comedown of epic proportions, much about the Indian budget is about broken promises and

high expectations. But the drama of the last day of February, when the finance minister usually

delivers a long speech in parliament, is sometimes brushed off as an esoteric act that keeps

politicians busy and mediapersons discussing fervently about how bad it is that we saw a Rs. 1.36

increase in the cost of non-phosphate fertilizer.

We’re not saying non-phosphate fertilizer is not important. It is. It is hugely important. Largely,

because some of the people for whom it is hugely important might buy this book. And that is never

a problem for “our” budget.

But read on and we hope to enlighten and educate you about the thing that marks the end of

February.

Page 6: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 6

What the Heck is a Budget?

The Very Core Of It

The Union Budget is nothing but a statement from the government about:

a) the money that it expects to receive (through tax and other means); and

b) the money that it expects to spend

over the next year.

Additionally, the budget also documents the actual receipts and expenditures for the last few

years.

The budget documents are placed before Parliament by the government.

Since the government is an extremely large and complex entity, the actual numbers take time to

collate. The general practice, therefore, is to present:

the numbers for the coming financial year as “Budget Estimates” (BE)

the numbers for the immediate previous financial year as “Revised Estimates” (RE)

(The budget is usually presented about a month before the close of the financial year. So the

government does not have the actual figure for receipts and expenditure. They are therefore

presented only as an estimate and are called revised estimates)

the numbers for the years gone by as per “Actuals.”

If the budget is just a financial statement why all the buzz surrounding it?

Many reasons for that.

One, the government is the dominant player in the economy, by far. So it’s activities and their

outcomes in the form of earnings and expenditures have a profound and lasting impact on the

economy. Therefore, it matters a great deal from an economy wide perspective.

Also, traditionally policy changes on taxation etc. have been announced along with the

presentation of the budget. This is not a requirement, but has become a tradition. This is also what

most people care about, other than economists and industry players.

Policy announcements like changes in duty structures etc. are also made on a regular basis outside

the budget too. These announcements however do not attract the same kind of attention that

announcements on the budget day do.

Page 7: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 7

The enabling instrument for Parliament to approve the budget and taxation proposals of the

government is the “Finance Bill” which is also tabled on the floor of the Parliament.

The Finance Bill is debated upon and passed by Parliament as an Act. This gives the legislative

mandate to the government to tax citizens and make spending as per the budget proposals.

Revenue, Expenditure and Deficits

With that brief introduction, let’s dive right in to the meat of “what is the budget?”

The government’s budget can be broadly categorised under three heads

a) Revenue and Other Receipts:

Revenue is the money that government earns through taxes and other means. The qualifying word

here is “earns”. In simple terms, this money does not need to be repaid.

Other Receipts broadly comprise borrowings and other one off inflows like receipts due to

disinvestment (when the government sells the shares that it holds in companies), sale of national

assets like spectrum, exploration rights for natural resources like oil, coal etc.

b) Expenditure:

Expenditure is the money that the government spends. These can be of two types:

i) revenue expenditure; and

ii) capital expenditure.

Revenue expenditure is akin to consumption - an expense that does not lead to creation of an

asset. Capital expenditure is incurred to build an asset. Once built, the asset is likely to earn

revenue sometime in the future.

Examples of revenue expenditure are salaries, interest payments, subsidies etc.

Examples of capital expenditure could be money spent on building a power plant or a port or a road.

The power plant, road or port is likely to earn revenue in the future years once completed.

The government also classifies expenditure as Plan and Non Plan. The exact difference is not

material to our discussion, but one can broadly assume it to be similar to Capital and Revenue

Expenditure respectively. (They are however not the same).

c) Deficit :

Page 8: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 8

A deficit occurs because the government spends more than it earns. In other words, expenditure

exceeds revenue.

Two types of deficits are important:

1. The Fiscal Deficit : This is the excess of total expenditure over total revenue

2. The Revenue Deficit : This is the excess of revenue expenditure over revenue receipts. (As

in, we remove capital expenditure and borrowings)

The fiscal deficit is bridged in two ways – Printing Money or Borrowing

1. Printing Money : This is also called monetisation of deficit. In the Indian context this

happens when the government borrows from RBI directly or indirectly. This process

involves creation of fresh “Primary” Money or Reserve Money.

2. Market Borrowing : When the government borrows from the market, no fresh primary money

is created.

Page 9: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 9

The Budget, In Charts

The charts below give us an idea of the recent trends in Revenue, Expenditure and the Deficit of

the Government.

Government Revenue crosses 10 Lakh Crore in 2013-14

With the budget looking at a 21% increase in total revenues, the expectation is that we will get

more than 10 lakh crore in revenue this year. This translates to the highest revenue growth since

2010-11, and the second highest since 2007-08. With GDP growth at 5% this year, can the

government deliver?

Page 10: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 10

Tax collections are still largely about corporate taxes (33%), but individual income taxes have gone

up to 20% of all tax collections. Excise Duties have fallen from 32% of all taxes collected, down to

16% in 2013-14. Service tax has taken up the slack, accounting for nearly 15% of all taxes next

year, from less than 4% in 2005.

Page 11: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 11

Expenditure growth at 16% Next Year

Expenditure is marked by a high interest payment number that is still nearly 22% of all

expenditure. Subsidies have gone up - the fattening green line above. The biggest move has been

in plan expenditure in the last few years.

And you can see how, after two years of sub 10% increase in expenditure, we now have a 16% year

coming up. This is sustainable only if revenue grows 21% as per plan, but as mentioned, that looks

highly suspect as well.

Page 12: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 12

Fiscal Deficit Looks Manageable, But This is a Budget

As revenue growth has been moderate (the average in the five years has been only 15.5%) and

expenditure growth low in recent years, the fiscal deficit seems to have been tame, but it is a large

absolute number.

The fiscal deficit has therefore surged in recent years. Since the fiscal deficit is financed primarily

by borrowings, the borrowings by the central government has also shown a marked upswing.

Budgeted numbers are hardly a reality, and we should take these numbers with a pinch of salt and

a dose of optimism.

Some Highlights of Budget 2013

Huge Increase in Gross Borrowing

1. Borrowing : The government has budgeted to borrow a gross amount of 6,29,000 crores

from the market in the financial year 2013-2014. This is a significant jump from the

5,58,000 crores that the government is expected to borrow in 2012-2013.

2. However, amongst the repayment of older borrowings this year, the government has

provided for an amount of 50,000 crores as buyback of old borrowings. Net out this amount

and the additional borrowing this year is not significantly higher than the previous year.

Page 13: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 13

3. Market Stabilisation Scheme : The government has also budgeted an amount of Rs. 20,000

crores under the market stabilisation scheme (MSS). Readers may recall that MSS was an

instrument used by RBI (along with the government) to manage the excess liquidity that we

were flooded with during 2004-2007 when foreign inflows were plentiful. With liquidity

conditions tight and the rupee under pressure providing for MSS this year looks

counterintuitive. It remains to be seen if this is a sign that the government is expecting a

reversal of the tight money situation.

Some Of Them Companies Pay Very Little!

The Government also releases a statement of revenue foregone which details the amount of money

it may have collected had the various tax incentives available to individuals and corporates not

been there.

This statement has a lot of information, but this time they have included a study on taxes paid by

different companies according to their profitability profile. The total sample of the number of

companies studied exceeded 4.9 lakhs. This is therefore a fairly large and representative sample.

The findings are summarised below in charts.

Page 14: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 14

As can be seen above, the effective tax rate for companies is lower as its profitability increases.

This indicates greater usage of tax incentives by the larger more profitable companies.

Also, more than 56% of corporate taxes collected came from just 252 companies which is less than

0.5% of the total number of companies, showing you how top-heavy our industry is.

The effective tax rate for all the companies in the study (about 4.95 lakh companies were studied)

was only 22.85%, much lower than the 32.45% nominal tax rate for domestic companies.

The distribution of number of companies as per their effective tax rate is:

Page 15: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 15

As can be seen bulk of the companies paid an effective tax rate of zero or less than zero. Amongst

the companies that had a positive tax rate, a bulk of them fell in the 30-33% tax slab.

Page 16: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 16

The government gets hyperactive in February and March

The following table illustrates the performance of the government in this financial year so far (up

to January). It also compares the revised estimates that the budget document has estimated for the

whole year. The difference between the revised estimate and the actuals upto January gives us an

idea of the extent of activity expected in the months of February and March.

(Rs. Crores)

Item Revised

Estimates

Actuals till

Jan 2013

Estimate for

Feb and

March

Feb and

March

activity as

% of Total

Last Year

Feb and

Mar %

Revenue Receipts 871828 628583 243245 27.90% 26.9%

- Tax Revenue 742115 527822 214293 28.88% 27.2%

- Non Tax Revenue 129713 100761 28952 22.32% 25.6%

Total Expenditure 1430825 1111348 319477 22.33% 23.2%

-Plan Expenditure 429187 316026 113161 26.37% 28.7%

- Non Plan Expenditure 1001638 795322 206316 20.60% 20.6%

Revenue Deficit 391245 352205 39040 9.98% 15.2%

Fiscal Deficit 520925 465681 55244 10.60% 15.7%

Page 17: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 17

The Budget For....

Page 18: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 18

For You and me - The Lowdown on Taxes

It has been an extremely boring budget (except for those in the stock markets who saw the market

up 0.5% at the beginning and end up 2% down towards the close). Let me first tell you what you

want to hear.

Taxes Slashed Across The Board.

That’s what you want to hear. But no.

Some Taxes Slashed? Tax Slabs Expanded? I might pay a little lesser tax?

Maybe?

You’re getting closer, but not quite.

So Nothing? No Taxes Slashed? I’ll pay MORE tax?

Yeah! Now we’re talking.

The income tax slabs don’t change at all. It’s that complicated mix of:

Upto 2 lakhs per year, nothing

10% of what’s between 2 and 5 lakhs .

20% of what’s between 5 and 10 lakhs

30% of whatever’s above 10 lakhs.

With the usual caveats of: if you’re above 60, the first slab is 2.5 lakhs, and if you’re above 80, it’s 5

lakhs. Nothing changes.

Ha, but there’s this tiny little thing. Since apparently inflation applies only to the lowest tax

bracket, the finance minister has decided that if your income is less than Rs. 5 lakh, he’ll

give you a “rebate” of Rs. 2,000. That is: you calculate your tax and pay Rs. 2,000 less than

that.

So How Come I Pay More Tax?

Do you earn more than 1 crore? That’s 10 million rupees if you don’t know what crore is. ( Then

why would you be reading this? But I digress) If the answer is “no”, and you don’t know anyone else

that does, then you can skip this section.

Individuals that earn more than Rs. 1 crore will pay a 10% surcharge. That means if you had to pay

Rs. 20 lakh in tax, you’ll pay another 2 lakh as a surcharge. (And the 3% education cesses on top of

those)

Page 19: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 19

This applies to Individuals, Firms, Co-operative societies and Local Authorities. And Limited

Liability Partnerships.

For companies (Private or Public Limited) that earn more than 1 crore, the surcharge is retained

just 5%. But if they earn more than 10 crore rupees – bang, we’re up to the 10% surcharge level.

Foreign companies already pay a higher rate of tax for their Indian income, and their surcharge

remains at 2% below Rs. 10 crores, and 5% above that.

In effect, if you’re paying more tax, then you’re probably rich. I want to be sympathetic and face the

same problem because heck, I get to be rich.

On a more serious note: this increases the taxes that public companies pay, so you will find

companies reporting lower earnings, to the extent of about 10% of taxes paid, in the coming year.

I hope there’s no more bad news.

Currently it’s like this. The lack of good news is bad news. Your costs just went up due to inflation.

You get no extra tax relief. So you’re going to have to cut back on those expenses. And there’s stuff

that’s getting more expensive.

Like?

Smoking. Duty on cigarettes is up by 18% on cigarettes less than 65 mm. Or some such random

number which never ever works because ITC’s profits are always going up. And it’s not those potato

chips that sell that much.

Okay, but I don’t smoke.

Good. But you use a mobile phone? Bonus points if you’re reading this on your mobile phone,

because the bad news is: mobiles get that much more expensive. Mobile phone duty is up to

6% from 2% for stuff that costs more than Rs. 2,000. And everything costs more than Rs. 2,000.

(On an easier to understand note: If your mobile phone costs Rs. 15,000, you can expect it to cost

about Rs. 600 more.)

Grr. What else?

Okay, I’ll be the bullet point guy.

Air conditioned restaurants will now charge service tax. Earlier only the ones with

alcohol did. Now you can total teas, but you’ll pay the service tax. [Editor: He’s losing it]

SUVs. Excise duty raised from 27% to 30%. Unless it’s a taxi. I know what you’re

thinking. So does the excise tax department.

Page 20: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 20

Marble tiles in case you wanted a reflooring. The duty is doubled from 30 per sq. mtr to

Rs. 60.

Vehicle Parking get service taxed. This kills my mall mileage.

Home loans got cheaper for a very select lucky few that get to buy their house for less

than 40 lakhs, and will take a loan of less than 25 lakh in the next financial year. They

will be so thankful. Meanwhile I rent because what you get for 25 lakhs nowadays won’t

even house the equipment this post is being written on.

Keyman insurance was being misused by having a company take it and then having it

assigned to the individual who got the full benefit. This is now gone. I will write about

this in detail but it’s a loophole fixed.

Real estate purchases from builders which is high ticket will get more expensive. Again,

detailed post coming, but you will pay 0.62% more (currently 3.09%) if you buy a large

house or pay all the money after construction is complete.

Customs duty on Set top boxes for TV is doubled, to 10%.

From 1 June 2013: Buy a property worth more than 50 lakh, and you have to deduct 1%

tax before you pay the money to the seller. And deposit it with the Income Tax

Department. (Yes, I wish I could have kept it too)

Oh yeah, if you have money in Dividend Paying Mutual Funds, don’t.

Anything Good?

Yes, shouldn’t there be? Again, bulletpointing:

The disabled get to pay upto 15% of sum assured as premium and still get income tax

exemptions. (Current upper limit is 10%)

Baggage allowances (duty free) for jewellery, for a returning Indian after living abroad

for a year or more, is raised to Rs. 50K (from 10K) for a man and Rs. 100K (from 20K) for

a woman. Crew gets a higher limit of Rs. 1500 (from Rs. 600).

Hazelnuts are cheaper, with customs duty cut to 10% (from 30%). Hopefully the topping

on the coffee will get cheaper too.

Li-ion batteries for electric cars will get no customs duty. But there’s no power to

actually charge those cars at a large scale, so it’s not really all that good.

Page 21: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 21

For Startups: The Mixed Bag

What’s in it for startups? Last year, we had a horrible section (Read the full e-book) that still works

against angel investors in early stage startups. (Angel investments would be taxed if they couldn’t

prove that an investment had a sound valuation backing it – and early stage startups are wet-

finger-in-the-air valuations)

The Return of the Rs. 1 Crore Angel, Or Something

In Budget 2013, there are some interesting changes. First, to solve the above problem in last year’s

budget, this year the FM said that:

SEBI will prescribe requirements for angel investor pools by which they can be registered as

Category 1 AIG venture capital funds.

This can be good or bad. Good because if AIFs are effectively governed like VCs, their investments

don’t hit the wall that my last year’s rant was about.

Bad because of multiple factors:

Much higher regulation and transparency that is currently required of AIF kinds of funds.

The current minimum any investor can put in is Rs. 1 crore. Angels in India don’t really

seem to have that kind of money to spare. (other than the big organized ones)

Involving SEBI can mean a lot of paperwork (reporting).

Let’s hope that SEBI creates less of a reporting and investing nightmare when it defines what

constitutes angel investor pools.

“Pass Through” Status Good For Angel Investors

A company or trust registered as a VC fund or angel fund as above has to pay tax on investments

when it generates profits. But the profits are really those of the investors in a fund, and different

kinds of investors may have different tax structures. An investor through Mauritius may not have to

pay capital gains taxes, but the vehicle – the VC fund – will have to. Another investor may have

losses in his books, but he can’t offset them against the gains made by the VC/angel fund because

they are in different entities.

In the budget, Category 1 AIF Funds (VC funds) have been given a pass-through status. Meaning,

the gains made by the fund are passed through to the investors (in the proportion of their holding).

This can help substantially, especially when raising money from foreign shores, where tax

structures play an important role.

Page 22: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 22

Maybe Flipkart can Flip The FDI Probe Over

Pratyush brought this up. The only reason Flipkart’s getting grief about FDI in multi-brand retail is

that its main investors (Accel and Tiger) are foreign owned. So they have to do a two-company

structure, where Accel and Tiger own stakes in a wholesale company, which sells to a retail

company that owns the website and handles delivery.

Why are Accel and Tiger foreign companies? Probably because Mauritius has no cap-gains taxes. If

they created a VC firm in India, then Indian taxes would apply to any gains, and that’s no good.

Now, with the tax-pass-through structure, would it be better for Accel and Tiger to set up an Indian

Venture Fund, make it a class 1 AIF with SEBI, and use the tax-pass-through? And then, as an

Indian entity, the AIF entity should have no problem owning stake in Flipkart’s retail site.

However, I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know if the AIF, even if set up as such, would still be a

“foreign” investor due to its eventual ownership.

SME factoring credit guarantees to SIDBI

SMEs that serve large enterprises might need cash flow before payments flow in (due to long

gestation time before payments). Factoring allows banks or institutions to provide cash flow

support to an MSME against receivables; and an act has been passed to allow factoring, in 2012

January. SIDBI can act as a credit guarantor for SME factoring, for which the budget has given it Rs.

500 cr.

Additionally, SIDBI’s refinancing facility for SMEs (that is, they take on part of the risk of SME loans

made by other financial institutions) is now enhanced to Rs. 10,000 cr. (from last year’s 5,000 cr.).

SIDBI even has a website for this.

MSME benefits to continue upto three years after

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) may get the MSME ministry to pay for participating

in international fairs, or for credit guarantees (mentioned earlier), or for other such schemes that

are not tax related.

The budget has proposed that if an MSME should move into a larger bracket and lose the MSME

status, it can continue with the above benefits for the next three years.

Incubators for CSR

Funds provided to incubators within colleges and approved by some ministries will now qualify

under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) utilization that all companies need to spend on,

with at least 2% of their net profits. This is great if you are an incubator inside an institution, but

Page 23: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 23

you really need to be going out there, really gung-ho, trying to get funds allocated before the next

“insti” starts its round.

SMEs can list without IPO with informed investors

There are now pure SME exchanges with less onerous listing requirements. While they created the

tool, they must have squealed in delight. Listing though, has been way too ineffective, with

complex listing requirements needed even now. This can be fixed, but the exchange will have to

find the traders.

However for new issues , you can list your SME in this exchange, and if you don’t want to do a full

open offer, do an offer to “informed investors”.

Unlisted Buy-Backs Get Taxed

Private limited companies might resort to buy-back agreements to helps their investors. An abuse

of this is to use the buyback route to provide money to investors, instead of dividend, and thus

avoid the dividend distribution tax.

The deal here is:

Company offers a buy back (once in two years)

The buy-back is at a slight premium to the price at which investors have invested.

Investors "tender" about 10% of their shares, and then get paid.

The amount they receive is usually "long term capital gain" which is taxed at a low rate.

Since everyone tenders proportionate shares, there is no change in actual ownership.

This is equivalent to getting a dividend and no dividend distribution tax has been paid.

The essence is: If a company buy back at a low enough price, then shareholders can get money in

their pockets and pay a very low tax (as capital gains).

This has been blocked by the budget, stating that all unlisted company buybacks must pay 20% on

the money used for a buyback, as a tax.

As a consequence, none of the money received by investors is then taxable. It's equivalent to a

dividend in all senses then.

Our view: This is scary and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Buy-backs serve a useful

clause as well – to provide liquidity or partial exits to investors, where a company might choose to

compensate some investors (while others refuse the buy back). Remember, you can't refuse a

dividend.

Page 24: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 24

However, there is hope. I can recommend that you set up your company as an LLP where buy-

backs of this sort are not at all necessary, since distribution and withdrawal are quite simple (no

dividend distribution tax).

Startups and SMEs should learn to accept debt as a part of life and go apply for some of the

ventures, even for small ticket loans where the government stands guaranteed. Money can vanish

fast so don’t splurge.

Page 25: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 25

The Budget for Traders and Investors

Page 26: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 26

STT Gets Slashed, CTT comes in

Securities Transaction Tax (STT) is something traders seemed to expect would go away (Read why I

thought it would not be taken out), and it has indeed been reduced. From the finance

memorandum:

Mutual Fund STT Cut

STT for Delivery transactions – that is, where you purchase but do not sell intraday – of an equity

mutual fund , bought on a stock exchange (so, an Exchange Traded Fund, effectively) – is currently

0.1% each way (buying and selling).

From June 1, you will not pay STT for purchasing Equity ETFs. And you’ll pay just 0.001% for selling

them.

What about regular equity mutual funds (not sold on the exchange)? The STT has been cut from 25

basis points (0.25%) to a miniscule 0.001%.

Why even that? Because as I have argued in a detailed post, taking it to zero means that long term

capital gains taxes will apply – and that is not desirable.

Page 27: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 27

Futures STT cut to 1 basis point

STT for futures was 0.017%, or Rs. 1,700 per crore. For a single Nifty Lot, that worked out to Rs. 51

per lot (at Nifty of 6,000). That will now come down to Rs. 30 per lot at 0.01%. (Only on the sell

side)

Commodity Derivatives Taxed

The FM has introduced a Commodities Transaction Tax (CTT) at 0.01% of the total contract value,

for all non-agricultural commodities. A contract to buy 100 grams of gold (costing Rs. 2.8 lakh

today) will pay Rs. 28 in taxes (paid by the seller).

This can be a bummer, since most contracts are highly levered (you pay a margin of just Rs. 8,000

or so per contract) and therefore people make trades that get them Rs. 100-200 per contract in

profit. Of that, this CTT is a significant number.

Page 28: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 28

Real Estate: Not a Happy Note

Ramifications of a budget are beyond taxes. But usually, the real estate fellows desire and get a

little bit of an exemption here and there. Not this time, it seems. Here’s two limiting items in the

Budget.

Home Loans Get Additional Tax Deduction on Interest, But Wait

When you pay interest on a home loan, that interest is tax-deductible upto Rs. 150,000 on your

primary residence. That means you can reduce this much from your income if you’ve paid it as

interest. This is quite inadequate in most cities, where even a matchbox costs more than 50 lakh. A

loan of Rs. 40 lakh at 10% would give you an interest payment of nearly Rs. 400,000. Obviously

this is much greater than the 1.5 lakh exemption.

The FM has introduced a higher exemption. Another Rs. 1 lakh is exempted, when paid as interest.

However, there are restrictions:

The loan needs to be taken in the year 2013-14

The loan should not exceed Rs. 25 lakh

The house should not cost more than Rs. 40 lakh

The borrower should not own any other property at the time of loan sanction

This means that effectively, you can’t even transfer an existing loan to avail of this exemption.

(There is a wild exemption: if you have a house that qualifies in points 2 and 3 above, but it hasn’t

yet been completed, you might be able to transfer the loan to a new bank and meet the conditions

above)

Unfortunately the numbers don’t add up. Even if you consider a loan of Rs. 25 lakhs, you will just

about pay Rs. 2.5 lakh in interest at a loan cost of 10%. But since such loans get a better deal from

banks (who get a better deal from RBI in terms of capital allocation for such loans), and also

because interest rates might come down, the limit of Rs. 2.5 lakh may not be fully utilized.

(For such a case, you can use the “unutilized” amount in the subsequent year, but that’s only the

differential amount.)

This isn’t so great for builders because the cost of land and construction in most cities exceeds the

Rs. 40 lakh limit in most cases. However, there are economical projects in the outskirts that should

benefit.

Real Estate Transactions May Get Higher Service Tax Charge

The memorandum says this:

Page 29: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 29

At present taxable portion for service tax purpose is prescribed as 25% uniformly for constructions

where value of land is included in the amount charged from the service recipient. This is being

rationalized. Accordingly, where the carpet area of residential unit is upto 2000 square feet.

or the amount charged is less than One Crore Rupees, in the case of 'construction of

complex, building or civil structure, or a part thereof, intended for sale to a buyer, wholly or partly except

where the entire consideration is received after issuance of completion certificate by the

competent authority', taxable portion for service tax purpose will remain as 25%; in all other cases

taxable portion for service tax purpose will be 30%. This change will come into effect from the 1st day

of March, 2013.

This is unnecessarily complicated. It’s like this:

You buy from a builder today, you pay service tax (12.36%) on 1/4th of the total value.

That is, you pay 12.36% of 25% of the value, so you pay about 3.09%.

From tomorrow – March 1,2013 – you will pay the same service tax but on 30% of the

property value if certain conditions apply. That will take your effective tax up to Rs.

3.71%.

What conditions for the higher tax? A house with a “carpet” area greater than 2000 sq. ft. ,

where you’ve paid more than Rs. 1 crore, and where you have paid the whole amount after

the completion certificate was issued. Say “no” to any one of these, and nothing changes

for you. (You’ll pay the same old 3.09%)

In context, the amount, for a Rs. 2 crore (large) house, bought directly from a builder, will cost Rs.

1.24 lakh more.

These conditions might be easily skippable for borderline properties (carpet area is usually about

70% of the area you pay for, or less).

Both of the above notes in the budget are not very great for housing companies, but at least for the

most part it is status quo.

TDS of 1% for property transactions

People who sell property often give a wrong PAN number or don't file taxes on the money

received. In order to reduce leakage of tax revenue from such transactions, the FM has made

mandatory a 1% tax-deduction by the purchaser. The purchaser will be required to pay the

government such "TDS" within a few days.

This applies only to "non-agricultural" land, and then, only to properties priced over Rs. 50 lakh.

To be able to deduct tax and pay it, you have to apply for a TAN (Tax Account Number) which can

take time and effort. But TDS can be paid online. However, because of the pain involved, sellers are

Page 30: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 30

likely to demand a 1% higher rate. And then, this 1% is likely to increase the "black" component of

real estate deals.

Stamp Duty Is The Real Deal

Sometimes local municipalities get really aggressive on property valuation and attempt to increase

the minimum rates of property for which stamp duty is paid. So in certain areas, a property cannot

be sold for less than Rs. 5,000 per square foot, and stamp duty on that much amount must be paid

even if the market prices are lower.

Now it turns out that stamp duty is the official market value even for income tax. If you sell a

property for less than the stamp dutiable value, then the difference will be treated as your income

(as if you earned it).

There are two caveats. One, this applies only to properties where the difference between the stamp

duty value and the actual value received is more than Rs. 50,000.

The second is that if you make a written agreement to sell today for some upfront payment, but

actually sell only a few months later, and there is a difference in the stamp duty value, then you

can take the stamp duty value on the date of the agreement.

This can be a big problem if property prices fall. A 1,500 sq. ft. property with a stamp duty value of

Rs. 5,000, should sell for at least Rs. 75 lakhs. If property prices fall and you try to avoid the 1%

TDS and sell for Rs. 49 lakh instead, then the difference (Rs. 26 lakhs) will be considered your

income and you'll have to pay full income tax on it.

Such fun.

Page 31: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 31

Dividend Distribution Tax on Debt Funds Raised to 25%

From 1 June 2013, any dividends paid out by debt mutual funds to individuals will have to deduct

Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) of 25%, regardless of the type of scheme. Equity mutual funds

(funds with more than 65% in equity shares) will not pay such a DDT, as earlier.

As of now, funds which don’t qualify as equity mutual funds have to pay the following Dividend

Distribution Tax when paying out:

Type of Fund Individual or HUF Non-Individual

Money Market /Liquid Fund 25% 30%

All other non-equity Funds 12.5% 30%

The 12.5% is now being changed to 25%.

This dividend is not taxed in the hands of the investor in the fund, but then since the dividend

distribution tax is paid out from the earnings of the fund the NAV will come down that much. Had

the dividend distribution tax not been levied, either the dividend paid to investors would have

been higher or the post dividend NAV would have been higher. In fact this dividend distribution tax

is pernicious since it taxes all investors in the fund uniformly at the high rate of 25% (plus

education cess). Even if an individual does not fall in any tax bracket he or she pays 25% taxes

when dividends are paid out. There is no way of recovering this or claiming a tax credit for this.

This can be better explained with an example:

If I hold a fund with an NAV of Rs. 11, and it decides to pay out Rs. 1 per unit as dividend, it will

pay a DDT of Rs. 0.25 and the NAV will fall down to Rs. 9.75. Had the dividend distribution tax not

been applicable, the fund could have paid Rs. 1.25 as dividend. Alternatively, if the fund paid Re 1

as dividend, the post dividend NAV would be Rs. 10 (and not 9.75). Effectively, that tax is paid by

you.

The relevant extract in the memorandum is:

Under the existing provisions of section 115R any amount of income distributed by the specified

company or a Mutual Fund to its unit holders is chargeable to additional income-tax. In case of any

distribution made by a fund other than equity oriented fund to a person who is not an individual

and HUF, the rate of tax is 30% whereas in case of distribution to an individual or an HUF it is

12.5% or 25% depending on the nature of the fund.

In order to provide uniform taxation for all types of funds, other than equity oriented fund, it is

proposed to increase the rate of tax on distributed income from 12.5% to 25% in all cases

where distribution is made to an individual or a HUF.

Page 32: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 32

This is a bummer for all those that have bought the dividend option of any non-equity fund,

including:

Gilt Funds

Bond Funds

Income funds

Balanced funds (where equity is less than 65%)

Fund of Funds

Gold Funds

Our Solution: Buy the Growth option instead. You can set up a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP)

that simulates dividends, and not have to pay this tax in whatever form. However, switching to

SWP may involve computation of capital gains (since the money withdrawn through SWP is a

combination of income and capital gain). Capital Gains are however taxed at a lower rate and there

is no deduction at source. So investors benefit through this switch to SWP. Since the change in

DDT applies from 1 June 2013, so you have the time to now move your debt investments to the

growth option.

Note: A switch to growth option may involve an exit load (if you shift before the exit load term).

Also, if there are any capital gains, you will have to pay short or long term taxes on them.

They told us DDT was toxic. Now we know it applies to anything that forms that acronym.

Page 33: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 33

Foreign Investors

Foreigners Pay Lower Tax on Long Term Infra bonds

Till now, investment in Indian company issued long term foreign currency bonds by non residents

would attract 5% tax only. Moving to a more liberalized regime, the finance minister has allowed

for the 5% tax to apply even if the investment is into rupee bonds.

Only long term infrastructure bonds will qualify, and non-residents will have to put money into a

designated bank account, where the money will be converted and invested directly into such

bonds.

GAAR Comes In Later

The General Anti Avoidance Regulations, which spooked markets a year back, have now been

deferred to 2016. Unfortunately, the language still makes it clear that what is "avoidance" will be

determined on a case-to-case basis by a panel. The panel will have a High court judge, a Chief

commissioner of Income tax , and an academic or scholar. And there's no appeal. Foreigners must

think we've lost our mind.

Surprise: Residency not "sufficient"

The budget document specifies that in order to prove that a company resides in a non-taxed

country (like Mauritius or Singapore) it is useful but not the absolute clincher to have a tax-

residency certificate. Most of these companies don't actually operate from these geographies, but

get wink-wink-nod-nod shell companies to actually run investments from. Such shell companies

get a tax-residency certificate from the nations involved, but on further investigation it might

become obvious that the show is run almost entirely in London (where we don't have a juicy treaty)

or worse, in a plush office in Lower Parel (where you're not really a foreigner).

Now, a certificate will not be enough proof. Nothing will be enough proof, until you prove your

grandparents were born there. That's pretty much all they have to say about it, because they don't

tell you exactly what will shut them up about some silly taxes that aren't applicable to you

because, darn it, you have an Armani suit.

However between now and 2016 is a general election and all of this is discussion worth nothing.

Page 34: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 34

The Budget For Everyone Else

Well, it's not like the budget stops at being for investors or traders or salaried gentlemen or ladies.

It brings about a lot of things for parties everywhere, including people who own agricultural land

less than 8 kilometers away from a large urban settlement. Let's try and summarize.

Royalty Payments Get a 25% Tax

From 10% the government has upped the royalty tax for technical services to 25%, unless specified

otherwise in any specific country's double tax avoidance agreement with India. This will impact

companies like Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Maruti Suzuki and even those that have recently

been acquired by foreign companies, such as cement major ACC.

Invest Rs. 100 Cr. and get 15% Tax Deduction

Manufacturers who invest Rs. 100 cr. in new assets for Plant or Machinery, between 2013 and 2015

(April to March respectively), get a 15% deduction of this amount invested. This means if they

invest Rs. 200 cr. and make a profit of Rs. 50 cr., they get a deduction of Rs. 30 cr. additionally, so

their taxable profit comes down to Rs. 20 cr. This investment can be over two years (2013 to 2015)

and tax deduction can be spread accordingly.

Sounds good? But none of the following assets apply:

Vehicles

Ships or Aircraft

Office appliances or computer software

Any used or second hand machinery

anything installed in an office or a residence; meaning, only stuff that goes into factories.

Since many such things are required even for manufacturing in factories, you will find that the cost

of a project will probably need to be substantially huge to get to a 100 cr. limit.

No Cash for Political Investments

You can't claim any exemption for money paid in cash (versus cheque or through a bank account)

to a political party or an electoral trust. This has set many politicians wondering aloud about who

in their right mind would actually pay by cheque anyway.

Page 35: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 35

Loopholes and Workarounds

Page 36: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 36

Keyman Insurance Loophole Plugged: All proceeds will be

taxed

Budget 2013 has plugged a loophole in the tax system. Consider a small company that wanted to

pay its management a bonus based on a large profit it had received. The company can deduct the

amount paid, as an expense (so its taxes are lower). The individual would have that much money as

an income, on which he would pay tax.

If the company didn’t pay the person, the company had that much more profit and thus the

company would pay the tax. No matter what you did, the government got a cut of the profit earned.

However, there was a loophole.

A company could buy “Keyman insurance”, where it insures itself against the death of a key person.

The premiums it pays – and they could be huge – are tax exempt as they are an expense. So the

company pays no tax on the money. The employee hasn’t yet got the money, so he pays no tax

either.

However, sometime during the term, perhaps early enough, the company “assigns” the policy to the

employee and collects the “surrender value” from the key employee, which is typically as low as

10% or 20% of the fund value. The employee then pays subsequent premiums, and then gets the

full proceeds at maturity. Normally, proceeds of a keyman insurance policy are taxable in the hands

of whoever gets it; but the employee would argue that since he has been assigned the policy and

had paid a premium, it was not a keyman insurance policy any more. And thus, the proceeds were

tax free.

Effectively, a company managed to transfer money to its employees, without the government being

paid tax.

In a recent case, the Delhi High Court ruled that such an instance was a legal way to avoid tax

because this was specifically allowed. Escorts Health Institute was supposedly buying keyman

insurance every year, and then assigning them to employees, thus effectively avoiding the tax.

In Budget 2013, the Finance Minister has plugged this loophole. It is now specifically stated that

even if a keyman insurance policy is assigned, it will remain a keyman insurance policy. This means

that proceeds will be fully taxed. The change works for any assignment done or proceeds received

after April 1, 2013.

The lesson to learn is: Don’t screw with the Income Tax department. Escorts might have gotten a

high court order in their favour, but this change means that any future policy maturity from now on

(or April onwards) will be fully taxed in their hands. Meaning, all that litigation and time and

money spent is effectively worthless.

Page 37: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 37

Our opinion: Keyman policies were a tax avoidance method forever. We were first approached by

agents for it in the late 90s as a “tax-efficient” measure, when I was running my company with four

co-founders. Just as we were figuring out whether to do this, the tax department came up with a

notification that indicated they wanted to curb the abuse by taxing proceeds. Luckily we decided it

wasn’t worth our time to try and save taxes this way. In that sense, I believe this was a method to

avoid tax and was quasi-legal, depending on the specific wording of the tax law to make their case.

The income tax department hasn’t acted retrospectively – that is, taxed past proceeds – but only

those that come in the future, and this is quite within their rights.

Page 38: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 38

The Service Tax Amnesty Scheme

While small service providers are exempt from paying service tax until after they receive Rs. 10

lakh in any year, many such providers earn more and don’t file service tax payments, thinks the

Finance Ministry. However, such providers may be very difficult to trace and many simply won’t

know they face a penalty for not having filed such taxes. Giving them the benefit of doubt, the FM

has announced a “Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme, 2013”.

The amnesty scheme allows people to voluntarily disclose and pay service tax, if they might have

not filed since 2007, but understand that they need to. They need to:

file a declaration before December 31, 2013

pay half their dues by Dec 31, 2013 and the remaining by Jun 30, 2014.

they will not have to pay any interest or penalty for the fact that they haven’t filed so far.

But this only applies to people who voluntarily file. If they’ve been served a notice or proceedings

have been started against them, no such amnesty is available.

Service Tax Collections have been growing fast (ignore the first two years as it was a strong base).

In 2012-13, the expected growth is 36% (remember, the year is not over yet). To maintain the same

growth, the government will have to collect around 48,000 cr. more next year.

Page 39: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 39

In fact, service tax is now going to be 32% of indirect taxes:

Page 40: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 40

With service tax becoming bigger and bigger as a percentage of taxes, they must expect that this

tax will be more and more in focus. Our economy has a huge services focus – and service tax is

applicable on nearly everything, from haircuts to credit card interest. This amnesty scheme isn’t

really as much to collect tax as to ensure that people who haven’t yet paid up will now join the tax

system and pay up in future. I believe that to make this really effective, the way ahead will be to

increase enforcement – meaning, more and more notices will be sent out and scrutiny increased.

How will this pan out? In budgetary terms, we’ll only know next year. I believe the “cash” economy

will return, slowly, as people tell you to start paying in hard currency instead, and we’ll oblige.

After all, who doesn’t want to save 12%?

Page 41: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 41

What We Lost: Over 573,000 cr. From Tax Benefits

In the process of revealing the budget, the government also reveals what they would have lost

through various tax saving schemes. I have added the benefits to firms, corporate entities and

partnerships into one data set and classified various items in broad terms as "Corporates".

Corporates Eat Up 80,000 Cr.

The government has lost nearly 100,000 crore of gross benefits due to the lack of taxation due to

such tax benefits. However, with the minimum alternate tax (about 20%) which applies even if you

use tax benefits, this figure will come down by about 20,000 cr. to 80,000 cr.

The 80,000 cr. amount is huge - remember that the entire food subsidy is 90,000 cr. However

some level of industry subsidy is required to ensure either social justice or to encourage an

industry like power.

Accelerated Depreciation: Some assets that usually take a long time to depreciate are allowed to

be depreciated faster (such as wind energy plants could take 80% depreciation a year until 2012).

This reduces their taxable profit, and thus their tax payments. At a gross level, this accounts for

nearly 40% of the overall industry subsidy at 38,000 cr.

Export Promotion Zones: From units in SEZs to STPI programs to special export oriented zones, the

benefits given to exporters have substantially lowered their income taxes. IT companies having

Page 42: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 42

STPI clearance, for instance, would not pay any taxes for the most of the last decade; the only

savior was the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) which ensured they did pay a bit. However, with them

receiving no tax exemptions abroad, their tax payments abroad accounted for much of the MAT -

meaning the Indian government still gets very little. This accounts for over 12,000 cr. of subsidy.

Location Preference: Certain locations - Himachal, Sikkim, the North East, Uttaranchal, and Jammu

and Kashmir are given a special treatment for tax purposes - investments in plants there can result

in lower or zero taxes. (Nearly 10,000 cr. of benefits).

Power, Petroleum (mineral oils actually), Housing: These are all specific sector based exemptions.

Housing, despite all of the other benefits we've given (interest not taxable for individuals, a

deduction for rental income etc.) still gets further benefits of over 3,000 cr. a year in lower taxes.

Given that it is now a speculatory game, we should definitely look at ending exemptions for this

industry.

Scientific research benefits provide companies tax deductions when they spend the money on

doing actual R&D. Infrastructure tax deductions are used to promote investment in something that

is long term (from telecom to roads and other stuff).

Note that the tiny items above are things like Food (where they do provide some benefits to cold-

chain creation, transport/storage of grains etc.) and waste management and so on (comes under

"Other").

Given the above, we have our priorities wrong. There's hardly anything about education in there, or

sport, or water. Food is altogether tiny as a proportion. The outsized items are accelerated

depreciation, housing and SEZ creation, none of which will help India's long term story quite that

much.

Individuals Take 36,000 cr. of subsidies

Individuals, too, get tax benefits and that impact has been quantified.

Page 43: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 43

80 C deductions consist of deductions for insurance, housing loan principal, provident fund

payments and so on. These add up to over 30,000 cr. for 2012-13.

Senior Citizens get higher limits but this is an example of a valid subsidy. After all, if a country

can't help its senior citizens then it really isn't much of a country.

Even individuals (through partnerships or proprietorships) get business tax benefits for setting up

infrastructure or stuff in specific locations, and that adds up to about 1,000 cr.

The other items are really small. The gain of being a woman has vanished with gender equality

coming into the budget last year, and Infra bonds no longer qualify for benefits.

Customs, Excise Duty and Service Tax

Indirect taxes account for a huge part of total revenue - over 50% of the government's revenue.

Here too, companies get benefits that could have otherwise yielded tax.

Page 44: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 44

This is certainly not all.

However, certain other tax saving items are not included in this list, for example:

The lack of capital gains tax on shares

Taxes lost on the housing income tax subsidy (deduction of 30% on rent received)

Taxes lost due to issue of tax free bonds

Taxes lost due to double taxation avoidance treaties with countries like Mauritius.

1,87,308 1,96,805

2,06,188

2,53,967

110.1%

129.0%

0.0%

20.0%

40.0%

60.0%

80.0%

100.0%

120.0%

140.0%

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

Customs Excise Duty

Revenue Lost: Indirect Taxes, 2011-12, Rs. Cr.

Actually Collected

Foregone

Percent Lost

Page 45: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 45

Effective Tax Rate - the distribution

It turns out that taxes aren't distributed evenly across industries. A quick map with all the listed

industries (nearly 500,000 companies) gives you an idea of the skew.

The average effective Tax-rate is about 22.85. At the lower extreme are cement and forest

contractors, who pay effective tax rates of less than 10%!

At the other extreme are courier agencies with over 36% effective rates, followed by beauty

parlours and security agencies. All of these are the service industry.

Are these bad?

It's not that all these subsidies are bad. It is not as if all food subsidies and diesel subsidies are bad

either. But the quantum of these taxes foregone is huge - together, they all add up to the

humongous sum of 573,000 cr. , which is over 2/3rd of the government's projected revenue in

2012-13 (of 742,000 cr.).Another way to look at it is that we could have collected 70% more money

than we did (and wipe out the fiscal deficit).

Things don't work that way. Incentives are needed to make business competitive. However the

scale of these subsidies make many of the other "outrageous" things pale in comparison.

Page 46: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 46

Our opinion: We believe that while some subsidies and incentives are required, we would promote

better behaviour if we reduced the scale of such subsidies and incentives to more reasonable

levels.

Another way to look at things is - can we remove these subsidies and lower tax rates? For instance,

if we could remove the 80C and other direct tax incentives to corporates, we could easily bring

down the tax rates by 20% each, with wider slabs. An income of Rs. 6 lakh with no tax incentives at

a single 7% slab brings in the same revenue as the same income with the guy having to invest 1

lakh in longer term avenues, and then there's the tax hassle of collating and checking this

information as well. A simpler tax regime with almost zero incentives would be challenging but

desirable.

Page 47: Budgetonomics 2013: Capital Mind on the Budget

Page 47

Closing Remarks While Budget 2013 was a damp squib in terms of exciting capital markets, or even generating

front-page news interest for over a day, the announcements made in there will have far reaching

consequences.

We believe that the government will find it difficult to meet either the revenue targets (too high)

and expenditure numbers (too low). With state elections coming up this year, it is quite likely that

many "fiscal" changes will happen within the year, as the budget gets less relevant in policy

making.(Who wants to subscribe to making changes only once a year?)

Yet, as it stands, the budgets seems to have not given in to populist tendencies like free rice or free

mobile phones (which are 6% more expensive, by the way). The fiscal deficit looks manageable.

The economy looks like it will turn around. Real estate prices look like they won't crash. But that's

just the veneer. We have no idea how rotten the wood is inside; the fact that we're at 4.5% GDP

growth shows us there's a lot we don't know, and it will harm us.

The problems that plague Indian growth will have to be handled by non-budgetary methods; a

Direct Tax Code to simplify taxes, a GST to make indirect taxes easier and industry promotion

methods that will require constant tweaking However, it would be good to have a government that

is ready to react when things get worse, and open up our markets to our own selves (like allowing

Indian companies to be suppliers to our own armed forces).

Overall, Budget 2013 leaves much to desire. The impact on our lives is probably lesser than any

other budget in the last decade, unless you are a diesel-SUV buying, mobile phone changing,

cigarette smoking, Service tax evading, alcohol consuming resident, in which case the only benefit

is that he didn't tax your inheritance when you die. For most of the rest of us, the budget

documents will get consigned to that corner of our mind where we only remember one thing: Darn,

he didn't cut our taxes.

This document is a work in progress and we will add more chapters, graphs and funny moments

over the next few days. All of you who have purchased this document will receive updates over

email. If you don't, please connect with us .

Contact:

Deepak Shenoy: [email protected]

Dheeraj Singh: [email protected]

Visit: capitalmind.in for more!