CARS
Cars will become cheaper due to an 8 per cent reduction in excise duty, to 24 per cent. Price cuts will be in the range of Rs 10,000-40,000. The price of Maruti 800, for instance, is likely to reduce by Rs 10,000 to Rs 11,000 while B-segment cars like Hyundai Santro and Tata Indica would become cheaper by Rs 17,000 to Rs 20,000. Cars will also benefit from the reduction in the peak rate of customs duty.

GEMS AND JEWELLERY
Import duty on rough diamonds, semi-precious stones and coloured stones has been scrapped. Duty on polished gems is down to 5 per cent from 15 per cent. Import duty on gold is down from Rs 250 to Rs 100 for 10 gm (for serially numbered bars). This brings down the cost of production for the sector. Income tax exemption has been extended to cutting and polishing units. The exemption was earlier applicable only to jewellery makers.

SOFT DRINKS AND BISCUITS
Excise duty has been cut by half to 8 per cent for biscuits and boiled sweets. Cold drink manufacturers also stand to benefit with the excise duty having fallen to 24 per cent (from 32 per cent). Biscuit manufacturers are expected to reduce prices by 6-7 per cent, while cold drink prices could fall by 5-6 per cent. The move is seen as a major boost for both product categories. Of course, the housewife is smiling too.

PHARMA AND HEALTHCARE
The hospitals sector will benefit from tax benefits for long-term financiers and higher depreciation of 40 per cent for life saving medical equipment, which will also attract lower import duty of 5 per cent (against 25 per cent earlier) and exemption from CVD (and excise duties in some cases). To boost R&D, tax holiday period has been extended and customs and excise duties waived for clinical trial drugs.

HOTELS
Tourism is one of the thrust areas in the budget and the biggest beneficiary is the hotel industry. The budget has withdrawn the expenditure tax, continued to exempt hotels from service tax and reduced the customs duty for imported equipment. The FM has requested the state governments to do away with the luxury tax for hotels. In addition to this, government staff will now get back their LTA benefits.

5 SECTORS BENEFITING THE LEAST

CEMENT
The cement sector stands to lose in the short to medium term but is a potential long term gainer. Excise duty on cement is up by Rs 50 per tonne or Rs 2.50 per bag. That, coupled with an increase in diesel prices by 50 paise per litre, will add to the cement industry's woes. The announcement of 48 new road projects at an estimated cost of Rs 40,000 crore, however, could mean long term gain since a quarter of the project will involve cement and concrete.

BRANDED OIL AND VANASPATI
An 8 per cent excise duty has been imposed on branded oil and vanaspati. This will add to the cost of production. Manufacturers for their part will find it difficult to pass on this cost to the consumer since prices of branded oil and vanaspati have been on the rise for some time now. Major players expect evasion of this duty by the unorganised sector, thereby creating an imbalance in the cost-structure of the industry. "This is clearly a retrograde step," says Harsh Mariwala, Chairman, Marico.

TELECOM
Not only does the telecom sector suffer by being in the ambit of the service tax hike-which has gone up from 5 per cent to 8 per cent-the fast-growing wireless mobile sector has been left in the clutches of the 1/6 tax scheme. However, fixed phones are out of that list. The much-anticipated increase in the FDI investment limit from 49 per cent upwards too didn't materialise. There is some good news, though: customs duty on some capital goods used by the telecom sector has come down from 25 per cent to 15 per cent.

CAPITAL GOODS
To increase economic growth, the budget has reduced the customs duty on several capital goods. These include the reduction of customs on textile machinery, power transmission sets, etc. To help the hospitals, the Finance Minister has also reduced the rates for medical equipment. The bad news: all these reductions come at the expense of companies that make them.

PSU BANKS
The budget has come as a major let-down to public-sector banks because the expected increase in the foreign institutional investment limit hasn't materialised (from the current 20 per cent). The hope of treating the American Depository Receipt holding outside this 20 per cent foreign limit was also belied. Though private sector banks have been allowed an FDI limit of 74 per cent, this has been denied to their public sector brethren. And this explains the sudden fall of PSU bank stocks led by SBI.

10 THE UNFINISHED AGENDA
CEO's on what the budget hasn't done.

NIALL S.K. BOOKER, CEO, HSBC INDIA
"I would have liked a more radical overhaul of the tax structure"

A. VELLAYAN, VC, EID PARRY
"On the agriculture front, the budget has proved to be a disappointment"

ASHWIN DANI, VC & MD, ASIAN PAINTS
"At the least, we were expecting the surcharge on corporate tax to go"

RAJSHREE PATHY, MD, RAJSHREE SUGAR
"The sugar industry has been neglected time and again by the government"

SUNIL KANT MUNJAL, MD, HERO CORP. SERVICES
"I clearly would have liked to hear a litte more on the phasing out of central sales tax"

K.V. KAMATH, MD, ICICI BANK
"The budget could have gone a step further in reducing excise duties to stimulate growth"

RAGHAVENDRA RAO, MD, ORCHID CHEMICALS
"Much more could have been done on the R&D front to make us globally competitive"

RAJEEV KARWAL, CEO, ELECTROLUX-KELVINATOR INDIA
"It's a domestic budget, with little to help our global (manufacturing) competitiveness"

JAGDISH KHATTAR, MD, MARUTI UDYOG
"The budget had nothing on oil subsidies to mark further move away from APM"

RAVI UPPAL, MD, ABB INDIA
"I was thinking they'd do something about MAT and power sector reforms"

TEAMSPEAK
What the FM's core team said of Budget '03.

Jaswant's A-team: The brain behind the Budget

S. NARAYAN/Finance Secretary
"The simplification of the tax structure will incentivise growth in the manufacturing sector and bring about a robustness in macroeconomic conditions"

C.S. RAO/Revenue Secretary
"The revenue targets have been set with long-term fiscal consolidation in view rather than based on short-term considerations''

ASHOK LAHIRI/Economic Advisor
"If the policies specified in the "paanch priorities" are adhered to, then there is every chance of containing the fiscal deficit at managable levels"

VIJAY KELKAR/Author, Kelkar Report
"The indirect tax structure is in line with modern practices and will bring about transparency in the system"