It’s not a radical Modi budget but a Chidambaram budget with saffron lipstick added. Many of Arun Jaitley ’s budget figures and policies resemble those in Chidambaram’s interim budget. Many thought Jaitley’s maiden budget would produce a major vision for five years, major reforms and some bitter medicine.Sorry, there was no great fiscal vision, only minor reform, and sugar-coated pills rather than bitter ones. Instead of being long on vision, the budget speech was long in duration (almost two and a half hours). Stock markets fell for a third successive day. My personal budget rating: 4.5 out of 10, not because Jaitley proposed anything terrible but because he could have done so much more. The budget had innumerable out lays for innumerable projects, a case of “no vote-bank left behind”. Instead of uniform tax rates without exceptions, Jaitley announced a multitude of small tax changes, all increasing the exceptions list.The Economic Survey envisaged reducing direct taxes to the Asean level, an FRBM with teeth, and food stamps and cash transfers instead of subsidised goods. Jaitley avoided all these reforms. He said FDI in defence and insurance could go up from 26% to 49%. UPA allowed 51% FDI in multibrand retail, but subject to so many conditions that only one company came in.Foreign defence manufacturers won’t enter with major technology transfer without at least 51% equity. In insurance, the 49% cap is inclusive of portfolio investment and subject to FIPB rules, not automatic clearance through RBI. Here too, 51% foreign equity would have constituted true reform. When Chidambaram announced a fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of GDP for 2014-15, most analysts called it a gross underestimate, largely because revenues were assumed to rise much faster than GDP.Jaitley has stuck with Chidambaram’s dubious revenue and deficit estimates. He will get the fiscal deficit down to 3% of GDP by 2016-17, echoing Chidambaram’s target. He has funked bitter medicine on subsidies. The sugar-coating includes Rs 15,000 crore in taxes foregone, mainly by raising the income-tax exemption limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh. An extra Rs 7,500 crore comes from indirect taxes, mainly by raising the tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products by 11-72%.But he has left out beedis, which are consumed by eight times as many people as cigarettes are. Jaitley hoped for an early agreement with state governments on goods & services tax , but gave no guarantee to the states against any revenue loss, a major stumbling block. Many expected him to end retrospective taxation , and close the Vodafone case.Instead he reaffirmed the right to retrospective taxation, left old cases to the courts, and said new cases would be allowed only after careful screening. Chidambaram brought forward future revenue by asking PSUs to declare large interim dividends in March instead of waiting for September.Jaitley will continue that policy in spades: his dividend expectations total Rs 90,229 crore against Chidambara’s estimate of Rs 77,229 crore. This is partly because of higher RBI dividends. Jaitley should have projected far greater receipts from disinvestment than Chidambaram did in his interim budget, given the sharp rise in stocks since February. But he has budgeted for an increase of under Rs 7,000 crore. This is a rare cushion against negative developments.