Thread by @mihirssharma

FM: "Ancient India was largely self-reliant". Well, actually it was a major trading nation. And soaked up an enormous amount of Rome's gold. So bored of buzzwords like "aatmanirbhar" #Budget

A Rs 5tn development finance institution, focused on raising foreign funds. Glad to hear this, very important for infrastructure build-out. Let's hope that it is structured professionally and sensibly #Budget

Asset and land monetization - the safest way to plug the gap between expenditure and revenue. Selling govt land, leasing highway tolls and so on. Long promised, but here writing good contracts tends to be a bottleneck.

Rs 7000 cr for a Power Grid investment trust doesn't sound like a lot - but it might leverage considerable private capital. Why is this essential? Because India needs to upgrade its grid to manage a big renewable energy surge #Budget

Truly amusing passage of play where FM solemnly lists highway projects in three states which JUST HAPPEN to be going to the polls very soon #Budget

Woah that's a big negative surprise if true

The Hydrogen Mission is another major bit of news (especially for state owned refiners and for legacy carmakers)
#Budget

A bit of a reality check re any promises in a Union Budget speech

https://twitter.com/A2D2_/status/1356122756895494144

The inevitable reference to Narendra Modi's first successful project, GIFT City seems almost perfunctory this year. Is there no respect for tradition? #Budget

Amazing. Long overdue. 74% FDI in insurance. Zero response from Parliament when this was considered massively controversial just 8-10 years ago. Things can change for the better #Budget

Not sure anyone in govt realizes thst if this actually works out and savings move quicker to pvt insurance cos, they will have to stop treating LIC as a cash cow. Major impact on long term corporate governance of listed cos too. #Budget

"One person companies". Say hello to "Mihir Sharma Ltd" says one of my copanelists on @IndiaToday #Budget

The details of privatizations will be "in Annexure 3". Probably means that there are actually public sector units named and they are serious about it. Because if she named it in the speech the local MP would 100% object #Budget

Ok a promise on centrally sponsored schemes, no details. That's kind of important for the social sector! Details please! #Budget

Not sure we should assume (1) this will really amount to a bad bank and (2) a bad bank will solve the problem of state bankers wanting to avoid responsibility for haircuts

https://twitter.com/deepakshenoy/status/1356124362353438721?s=21

Lots of big numbers about farm subsidies. Loudest and most emphatic part of the speech. Predictably #farmersrprotest

Did I hear min wages for the gig economy? How will that work precisely? Have they asked anyone who has experience with those companies?
#Budget

Question for Indian fin-twitter - did you follow the section on a new institution for corporate bonds? What do you think the proposal is actually? #Budget

Ok. A lot of good news in the Budget speech so far. Now, in Part 2, the giant bad news - how much we are overspending. It's fine to overspend this year - even necessary. But we better have a reasonable path down for the deficit as growth returns to normal #Budget

So @business was right - 9.5% of GDP this year. Very very very high. But what to do. Pandemic. Problem is that next year's is also too high. And the glide path too easy. #Budget

But states will have to go back to normal deficit caps much quicker than the Union government. They're the ones bearing the burden of the pandemic! Typical.

So this is very good. If *all* off budget borrowing by the government t has been brought on the balance sheet, then perhaps that explains part of the reason that the fiscal deficit is *so much* higher than expected #Budget

https://twitter.com/deepakshenoy/status/1356133651960881152

Oh god NOT MORE GIFT CITY NONSENSE #Budget

Very good news on zero coupon infra bonds, by the way, a clever way of getting tax-saving funds into the sector #Budget

And the IT announcements are also very interesting and positive! No reopening after 3 years, prefilled forms, etc. Good stuff. Much better than some dumb rebates #Budget

Ok now all the bad stuff after a *lot* of good stuff. 1980s protectionist nonsense that will undo half their good work. God knows why the BJP is so committed to Indira Gandhi socialism #Budget

Duties made higher on solar lanterns and invertors. Good idea to make them more expensive, right? Shows how serious we are about climate change and the green transition. #Budget

I remember when this trade section of the Budget was over in a few minutes. Sensible governments that didn't imagine they could screw around with tariffs and come out looking clever instead of stupid. #Budget