One opened door: tax reform. That is clearly a vital aspect of this Budget, and is, after all, what should be the core concern of a proper budget speech in a mature economy. Deservedly scrapped: the Fringe Benefit Tax. Complying with it was too difficult and time-consuming for companies. But individual taxpayers could ask: are perquisite taxes any better? In particular, making employee stock options subject to both perk tax and capital gains tax holds back attempts to create proper incentive schemes. It’s a clumsy bureaucratic solution to a complex problem — a seriously regressive step. However, removing surcharge on higher-end incomes is proper rationalisation that can be welcomed — and a good sign that the government, even if focused on ensuring the rural poor have access to the benefits of reform, does not intend to leave India’s growing middle class hanging because of forgotten socialistic shibboleths. A GST rollout date has also been announced.

So much for the core duties of the Budget, to take a look at the inconsistencies in how a government raises revenue. The next concern is the situation in which India is: a tough business-cycle downturn, and adverse external circumstances. There is as near a consensus as there ever is in economic analysis that deficits, while a problem, are less immediately dangerous than allowing possible green shoots of recovery to shrivel and die. So budget-as-stimulus was also necessary to watch. How does the FM perform? Expenditure is increased, and more resources put in the hands of consumers. Looking just at the deficit numbers, the Budget alone has pushed another 0.8 per cent of GDP out the stimulus door. But that massive expansion of debt will strain the RBI. A professional debt management office is overdue.

The immediate reaction of financial markets to news is not necessarily well-considered; separating the effect on a market index of widely differing factors, such as changes in sentiment, rational responses to fresh information, or speculators getting in and out, is something that should normally not be attempted without a decent time horizon and some perspective. Judging a political, pragmatic exercise by the reaction of the markets is naturally a temptation, but one in general that should be avoided. In this case, however, some preliminary observations about the reason for the market reactions are in order.

The effect was basically one of expectations. Expectations may have been unrealistically high about what a budget exercise could achieve, and unrealistically skewed as to what the aims of the actual exercise are. The exigencies of 24-hour cable news, in particular, may have played a part. A “big-bang-budget”, to use the unfortunate alliteration that appears to have become popular for some reason, was never on the agenda. A pivotal Budget, perhaps, but the maturity involved in sensing that pivotal measures do not need talking up is something that is yet to percolate through popular economic analysis in India. By now everyone should really have noticed that the problem with talking up a closed package is the inevitable disappointment when the package is opened.

The private sector’s concerns are not irrelevant. India’s recovery cannot be run by government fiat; the bounce-back of private corporate investment is essential. That, of course, depends on sentiment. Concerns that that optimism hasn’t been stoked are therefore valid, if almost certainly overstated. But as the government’s political minds set to rest concerns that India is restoring to places of honour socialist holy cows, the question will inevitably be asked: why the shyness to talk reform on the big stage the Budget provides?

Thus the eventual response of the private sector, and the re-energising of India’s growth, is what will write the final mark on the report card for Pranab Mukherjee’s effort. Wait to see what happens to investment from July to December. Or, of course, look to see if, over the next 100 days, the government’s reform agenda will slowly filter through.