Guests invited by Doha Bank at a video conference presentation on the Indian federal budget yesterday. The presentation was made by Doha Brokerage & Financial Services (DBFS) managing director and CEO, Prince George.       Picture: Shemeer Rasheed.


By Peter Alagos/Business Reporter

India’s federal budget for 2015-2016, which generated considerable interest globally, was met with "some disappointment" as it did not reveal anything specific for non-resident Indians (NRIs), an analyst has said.
Speaking to an invited audience at the Doha Bank headquarters at West Bay through video conference, Doha Brokerage & Financial Services (DBFS) managing director and CEO Prince George said India's finance minister Arun Jaitley did not reveal specific NRI- related proposals in his budget speech, the first full-fledged, after Narendra Modi assumed power.
“That announcement was not forthcoming. I did not see any reference on that. That was the one major disappointment because this has been promised by Jaitley in his various speeches overseas, particularly in New York and Australia," the Kochi-based George said.
“He (Jaitley) actually told all the NRIs in these places that he’s going to bring them at par. So, that is something, which is missing from the budget speech,” George explained, reacting to a question from Doha Bank head of treasury & investments, KV Samuel.
According to George, there were expectations that NRIs would be treated as "far-away residents"and that there would be some positive proposals vis-a-vis their remittances and investments. But while nothing was specific in his speech, George stressed the Indian finance minister mentioned regulatory policies that could be related to NRIs.
“I think, as of the moment, this has been taken off the budget. The issue of NRIs related to investments, repatriation, and such issues will also be taken care of; that is my understanding. Anyway, at the moment there is no such proposal in the budget speech,” said George, speaking from the DBFS headquarters in Kochi, Kerala.
For his part, Samuel noted that NRIs could expect some announcements in Kerala’s state budget, expected to be presented in the next two weeks.
Asked if he perceived any disappointments from NRIs on the federal budget, Samuel said, “While there was nothing specifically added, there was also nothing against it. It is reasonably okay but nothing was specific for NRIs.
“There was disappointment in the sense that the expectations did not materialise in several areas…For this budget, what really happened was that it was a normal budget with reasonable growth.”
Samuel described the overall budget as “a balanced budget,” and included India’s growth story. He emphasised that India “would grow at a faster rate” and would overtake China’s growth percentage by 2016.
“GDP growth is seen at 7.4% but it is expected to accelerate to 8% by next year. That is achievable because the potential in the Indian market is acceptable. Especially the low oil price is something that has come at a much needed time for India,” Samuel explained.
He also noted that the proposed sovereign gold bonds and gold coins, as well as the gold monetisation scheme, which aims to convert 20,000 tonnes of gold from Indian households into gold “would be good for the economy.”
“This is a good move and people will get some returns also. On the other hand, it will help the government reduce the trade deficit because it could substantially improve the returns of gold every year,” he said.
A recent World Gold Council (WGC) report said India was likely to remain the world's biggest gold consumer this year after regaining the top spot from China in 2014, driven by robust jewellery demand.
Indian consumer demand for gold jewellery and investment totalled 842.7 tonnes last year, compared with 813.6 tonnes by China, according to WGC data.