AmCham Eastern Region organized its annual ‘On the Spot Analysis of the Union Budget’ — a live viewing of the budget, in association with EY as a knowledge partner, at the Cisco Systems office in Kolkata on 1st February.

The session started with inaugural remarks on the expected budget proposals given by Mr. K.P. Sengupta, Chairman – Eastern Region, AmCham and Co-Chairman of Data Core Systems, and Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Partner, Tax & Regulatory Services, EY. This was followed by live viewing of the budget 2017 speech delivered by Hon’ble Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley.

Post the budget speech, the opening remarks on budget proposals were given by Mr. K.P. Sengupta and Mr. Amit Malik, Director and Head Services Sales – India & SAARC, Cisco Systems, on the impact of budget proposals on the economy from a macro perspective. Mr. Dinesh Agarwal and other representatives of EY analysed the various tax proposals and its relevance in achieving the Modi government’s agenda for this year of “transform, energize and clean India,” encouraging a “digital” economy to promote transparency in all the transactions, promote affordable housing and fostering ease of doing business in India. Mr Dinesh Agarwal specifically highlighted the following inter-alia key points:

Reduction of tax rate for individuals from 10% to 5% at the lowest income slab between Rs 2.50 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs
Levy of surcharge of 10% on income tax for individuals having total income exceeding fifty lakh rupees but not exceeding one crore rupees;
Restrictions in the limit of cash donations to Rs 2,000 for political parties to bring in transparency in the source of political funding

This was followed by an interactive dialogue with members, invitees and EY representatives who shared their insights on the impact of budget proposals on various industries (viz. IT, financial services, real estate etc). The interactive session was concluded with a vote of thanks from Mr. Suranjan Bhanja, CEO, Adapt International Pvt Ltd.