P S Saminathan, Managing Director, Pyramid Saimira Group, spoke to Shobha Warrier in Chennai

Are you happy with the Budget 2008?

Yes; given the compulsions of election year, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has delivered a balanced Budget. 

Is it a Budget focussed only on early elections?

Yes. But the FM did not go overboard. 

As a person from the entertainment industry, did it meet your expectations?

Yes; though we were hoping for sops (who does not)! But we are happy that no adverse measures are there to industry as such.  

What according to you are the positives and negatives of the Budget?

Positives: 

Write off of agriculture loan to small and medium farmers will clean out the balance sheet of banks; provide relief to farmers; improve agricultural growth and overall reduce rural debt.

Measures to simulate debt market/introduce derivative structures/introduce local convertible bonds are all great measures as ultimately without a vibrant debt market equity cult and capital formation cannot survive

Negatives:

No major measures to simulate consumer demand

No rationalisation of subsidy

No measures for improving delivery mechanisms

Reaction to the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver?

Very welcome move. This will free the small framers of debt; simulate agriculture growth and more importantly lift the morale of rural India who might have felt they missed out in the India growth story. 

Reaction to what he has done to the services sector

Well he has done nothing either way 

Do you think it is inflationary?

No 

Will it spur growth?

Given the global financial market meltdown and possible effect of the US recession the Budget has not done enough to simulate growth. 

Should we be giving so much importance to Budget presentation every year?

No not at all nowadays policy prescriptions are not one time and what we need is a stable policy regime. 

How will rate the Budget on the scale 1-10?
5/10