Today’s 2010-11 Union Budget has not directly affected law firms although it could have knock-on effects in several practice areas and save individual junior lawyers almost 30 per cent of tax.

This was an exciting week not just for India’s business media but also for tax lawyers, who will no doubt spend the long and colourful Holi weekend getting to grips with the changes in the 2010-11 Budget.

Lawyers and corporates have generally welcomed the Budget’s safe smorgasbord of changes, which could increase lawyers’ work, despite heavy lobbying efforts having given no respite to law firms on service tax. But it is also very unlikely there will be a repeat of last year when litigators went on strike over the service tax imposed on their law firm brothers and sisters.