Pranab Mukherjee has presented a budget that has left everyone wondering what really happened and whether we should give it more attention than Sachin's hundredth hundred. But after you have replayed the highlights over and over again, you might find it less heartening to see that customs and excise duty are higher, and you're going to have to pay more to watch your cricket matches in future.

But it could have been worse. Budgets come with expectations, and in this budget, the Finance Minister has ignored way too many of them.

Expected, in this budget, were direct tax cuts — income taxes have been cut in some way or the other in the last few years. What we got was a tax hike of some sort. The government is struggling for revenue and facing high expenditure, and it has raised both excise duty and service tax to 12% (from 10%)  Also, now every service comes under the service tax regime, barring 17 areas (such as school education, government service and so on). In addition, the imposition

The finance minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee is facing one of the toughest challenges of his long and distinguished career as the man at the helm of financial planning for the nation. This year's Union Budget comes a time when the ruling coalition faces multiple challenges from almost every quarter and the frustration of the masses is at its peak. There are a multitude of demands and expectations from the FM this year which will certainly be a tough task to tackle. Announcing the new tax slabs that will be applicable for the financial year 2012-13, Mr. Mukherjee has tried to juggle between populist aspirations and practical manoeuvrings. While the promised DTC could not be fully implemented in the current fiscal, there is certainly a move towards its spirit in the new scheme of taxation.

The new tax slabs for salaried and employed classes have been raised by a marginal amount. There will no tax for income up to Rs. 2 lakhs as against the previous figure of RS. 1.5 lakhs. This hike in the

To round off pre-budget series here is a SPOOF of the Finance Minister's Budget speech

Madam Speaker,

I rise to present the Union Budget for 2112-13

We are reaching the end of a remarkable fiscal year. In a globalised world with its share of uncertainties and rapid changes, this year brought us some opportunities and many challenges as we moved ahead with steady steps on the chosen path of fiscal consolidation and high economic growth.

Our growth in 2111-12 has been very good. All industries have shown great growth. We have witnessed over 15% growth and are truly shining as the world's best economy

We have been able to keep inflation at a low of 0.2% all through the year

Overview of the Economy

The Economy has been in healthy condition and shows great promise for the year ahead. We have made great progress in Agriculture and Industry and our monetary policies have ensured that the economy has been robust. The external sector has shown great promise with 70% of revenues coming from

The first thing an average citizen of India thinks about before any Government Budget is about his/her personal income tax. Discussions during and immediately following the Budget presentation by the Finance Minister is also about income tax slabs and the tax savings instruments. But is the budget presentation only about income tax?

Income Tax

As an "Aam Aadmi" all we know is about our own income and the tax related to it. So it is no wonder that one is curious if not serious about the money that one could retain for himself/herself out of the total income. Traditionally too the Budget presentations have gone into the details of the personal income tax and corporate income tax changes.

Government Budget — Income

The Government Budget however is not just about income tax. It is very similar to our household budget, which has both income and expenses. The government gets its income from the taxes it charges. This comes in different forms: Direct tax and Indirect taxes. Direct taxes are

Respected Finance Minister Sir, as a salaried employee, I voice the feeling of all the salaried in India. The one pain that we all face is because of the feeling that we are the highest taxed people of the country as all our income is transparent and the tax is almost always deducted at source.

Tax Slabs

Sir, my first request is to increase the tax slabs significantly. The current entry level slab and the gap between the higher levels are too low. Today a carpenter or electrician asks for Rs.750 a day as minimum wage. This means that he will make Rs.15,000/- even if he works for 20 days in a month. He goes without taxes or TDS. On the other hand if a salaried person touches the Rs.1.8 lakhs per annum slab he is taxed on his income.

Please increase the initial slab for income tax to Rs.5 lakhs. Make it atleast Rs. 3 lakhs. Also let the higher slabs have significant gap between them. As history has proven earlier, the less pain there is to pay taxes; more people will voluntarily pay

To round off the pre-budget series here is a light-hearted mock Budget speech

Madam Speaker,

I rise to present the Union Budget for 2012-13

We are reaching the end of a remarkable fiscal year. In a globalised world with its share of uncertainties and rapid changes, this year brought us some opportunities and many challenges as we moved ahead with steady steps on the chosen path of fiscal consolidation and high economic growth.

Our growth in 2111-12 has been very good. All industries have shown great growth. We have witnessed over 15% growth and are truly shining as the world's best economy

We have been able to keep inflation at a low of 0.2% all through the year

Overview of the Economy

The Economy has been in healthy condition and shows great promise for the year ahead. We have made great progress in Agriculture and Industry and our monetary policies have ensured that the economy has been robust. The external sector has shown great promise with 70% of revenues coming from Exports.

The finance minister quoted Shakespeare's Hamlet before starting the second part of his Budget speech. A long monotonous speech had a humorous pause albeit a very small one. To quote him "The life of a Finance Minister is not easy. Various players, including policy makers, politicians, agriculturists and business houses, participate in the making of the economy. When everything goes well with the economy, we all share in the joy. However, when things go wrong, it is the Finance Minister who is called upon to administer the medicine. Economic policy, as in medical treatment, often requires us to do something, which, in the short run, may be painful, but is good for us in the long run"

The literary pinch was probably to veil the fact that what was coming was more cruel and less kind! Let's look at what the FM had in store for Businesses and Industry.

The FM started off by saying that he is not touching the corporate tax rates and also gave positive input indicating measures for corporate

In the run up to the budget, and a few days after, the markets have reacted differently. The average budget day move, since 2000, is a tiny 1.08%. But that masks the volatility that the budget has seen, in both directions:

Bud Stock Moves

In the last two years, budget days have been incredibly benign and positive. In those budgets, we have expected, and got, tax cuts in various measures. In 2009, the expectations ran away, perhaps, as the markets toppled after both the interim and final budget presentations.

But are budgets usually positive? If you look at the budget moves from one month earlier to the previous day of the budget, and then onwards to one month after, is there a clear picture that emerges?

Bud And Stock Markets

There is no single direction the market has taken after the budget, based on its trajectory before the budget. In 2001, while the markets moved up more than 4% on budget day, they ended up falling 15% more in the subsequent month. The 2006 budget saw a flat budget day, and a benign period prior, and