Union Budget 2010-11

fiscal consolidation was the theme of the budget says Vallabh Bhansali, Uday Kotak, Madhu Kela, Nirmal Jain, Narayana Murthy, Sandeep Sabharwal, Mark Mobius, Nilesh Jain, Sunil Mittal...nd many more.

so i am guessing, fiscal consolidation is the theme ! :I

No Bad news is Good news for the markets. The rollback of stimulus measures was on expected lines.

MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) increase from 15% to 18% is negative but is mostly offset by reduction in surcharge from 10% to 7.5%

For Salaried Individuals, it was a windfall gain of upto 50,000 rupees per person!
only 10% tax on income upto Rs 5 lacs. 20% on 5-8lacs and 30% on income above 8 lacs.

Service Tax rate was maintaned at 10% which is a very positive surprise.

Direct Tax Code will be implemented from April 1, 2011 and datz very BAD bcoz the existing draft looks very bad in so much as it treats Long Term Capital Gains at par with Short Term Capital gains and taxes it at slab rates, which means upto 30%!

Nifty closed at 4925, below 4950 breakout level, so again, markets are direction less as of now..

Fiscal Deficit of 380,000 crores is expected to be maintained and hence the Bond markets did not see any major swings in the prices.