From what it looks like, we must acknowledge it is a good budget, in that it touches all the major issues, bringing India closer to the world, by rationalising on various fronts.

Take power. The first step has been through committing to 100 per cent metering of power used, which is a bold step. The next step would be to get payment for the power used.

Freeing movement of food grain between states is another measure, as is the decision on labour. Together with streamlining contract labour and allowing outsourcing of labour, these two moves are in the right direction.

The Finance Minister has also assured doing away with administered price for petro and pharma products.

On the fertilisers front too, he has done the right thing, both on fertilisers per se, as well as the fertiliser consumer. If my consumer is richer, it will help me (a fertiliser producer) and the country, be better off.

These moves include allowing the free movement of food grain which will improve profit for the farmer, funding of godowns, cold storage, and watershed management, tax breaks for transportation and food handling, excise breaks for food processing and the development of agri business centres for soil testing and other facilities. On the issue of power too, even though it may increase the cost to the farmer in that he will have to pay for it, it will lead to assured power, which will benefit the farmer in the long term.

In the fertiliser sector the FM proposes to replace the retention price scheme for urea by a group concession scheme which will serve to encourage efficiency and discourage inefficiency, in effect, push companies to become more efficient.

The movement out of the retention price scheme will also encourage free movement of urea, where the government will not play the role of allocator, and movement will become a market driven option. As far as the chemical industry is concerned, reforms in the power and labour sectors are in the right direction.

There were a few moves we were looking forward to, which have not come about. These include lowering fuel oil duties, since energy is a major input. We were also looking to reduction of value added tax on sales tax which was promised by 2000, and then by 2001, which, in this Budget, has not even been mentioned. No new deadline has been set.

The other aspect we were looking forward to was de-reservation in the chemical industry, particularly intermediates and dyestuffs, where economies of scale are necessary to compete globally. There has also been no major support or sop for the modernisation of industry.