Budget 2016: India Inc upbeat about Start-up & Make in India prospects

With the Union Budget 2016 set to be presented in Parliament later this month, the industry is in a buoyant mood. The Government’s mega initiatives such as Start-up India, Make in India and Smart City Mission are seen as giving a boost to various sectors such as manufacturing, e-commerce, start-ups, skill development and infrastructure. The industry is also expecting a forward movement on the crucial GST Bill, which is seen as eliminating multiple levels of taxation while enhancing transparency. Industry leaders share their expectations for the Budget this year as well as which sectors they see as gaining the most.

Rahul Agarwal, MD, Lenovo India

“With the Government’s strong focus on the ‘Make in India’ initiative, India is all set to become ‘the next manufacturing hub’ of the world. We are hopeful to get relief from the various regulatory and operational issues affecting the manufacturing sector, which will in turn boost the IT manufacturing ecosystem augmenting IT penetration in the country and attract investments for the industry. At present, one of the biggest hurdles the sector faces is the non-availability of an affordable component ecosystem, and unfavourable tax structure, causing higher costs for local manufacturing of PCs. Following the success of duty differential for smartphones and tablets, there is also a pressing need to introduce the same for PC manufacturing. I also hope that the Government is able to roll out GST next year and simplify the tax regime.”

Kamal Nandi, Business Head & EVP, Godrej Appliances

“Consumer appliances are not really luxury goods today. We are an industry dedicated to improving the lives of people in India through the various household products. Appliances are tools which aid people in becoming more productive on a daily basis. We feel this industry needs to be supported through exemption from customs levy for key parts, to boost domestic manufacturing in line with the Government’s ‘Make in India’ agenda. The issue of inverted duty structure also has to be addressed wherein raw materials attract more import duty than the final products. Tax structure needs to be streamlined so that locally manufactured products are not at a disadvantage vis-à-vis imports. It is also essential to further support energy efficient products through tax concessions so that such appliances can be encouraged and power consumption reduced, thereby ensuring a more eco-friendly future. Also, a forward movement on the crucial GST Bill will eliminate multiple levels of taxation while enhancing transparency which will ultimately benefit consumers.”

Pramod Saxena, Chairman & MD, Oxigen Services

“With the upcoming Budget announcement for the year, we feel that the Finance Minister should consider incentives for digital payments like direct subsidy credits similar to carbon credits, since 95 per cent of payments in the country are still in cash. The FM should also focus more on according ‘infrastructure status’ to digital payments network in rural areas for financial inclusion and payments. We expect that FM should also consider allocation of budget for promotion of financial literacy in rural areas. PPI’s should be allowed to offer cash out services to expand the reach of financial inclusion.”

Tripti Lochan, CEO, VML

“The Indian economy is one of the few bright sparks in an otherwise gloomy outlook to world economic growth. This year’s Budget has the perfect opportunity to spur growth further. Improvements in fundamental indicators like GDP, infrastructure, skill development and employment will lead to a positive outlook towards consumption. 2016 needs to be the year when the ‘Digital India’ ambition goes into action.”

AbheshVerma, COO, nexGTV

“The $1.5 billion start-up fund announced in ‘Start-up India 2016’ reflects the Government’s faith in digital and start-up ventures. It’ll be interesting to see the budget address critical infrastructural bottlenecks to improve the fund’s channelisation and accessibility in order to foster increased Internet penetration in Tier 2 cities and beyond, which will bring forth the next wave of digital entrepreneurs as well as consumers and help meet the Government’s vision for Startiup India and Digital India.”

Vishwas Shringi, Founder, Voylla.com

“With the launch of ‘Start-up India, Stand-up India’ action plan, the growing e-commerce industry has got positive directions from the Government, but it expects more clarity on certain aspects. The industry is undergoing a paradigm shift and bringing in a lot of innovation and change. The e-commerce industry is growing at a faster pace with the increasing use of mobile and Internet. According to Assocham, the e-commerce sector will be worth $38 billion by 2016.

Clarity on FDI & GST Roadmap: The e-commerce industry wants the Budget to give more clarity on FDI policies and GST roadmap. Taxes such as CST, VAT, excise and service taxes among others needs to simplified for smooth functioning of the industry. Maximum job opportunities can be generated in the industry, with relaxation of FDI limit. Clarity in processes and systems and single window system will help the sector flourish at faster pace.”

VCs Interest: Considering that e-commerce companies also have to take care of venture capitalists, who have invested in the venture, it is important that the Government ensures implementation of aspects such as funds-of-funds and other measures introduced in the action plan and help entrepreneurial ventures grow. The Government should look at increasing the tax holiday period from three years as hardly any start-up become profitable in just three years of inception.”

Abhimanyu Bhosale, CEO, Co-founder, LiveHealth

“Expect the Budget this year to take healthcare technology industry by surprise. The budget should reflect what Narendra Modi is trying to do for start-up companies.”

Bamasish Paul, Co-founder, Healthenablr

“I expect increased Budget allocation on healthcare and child welfare sector, especially on programmes related to reducing female child infanticide, upgradation of hospital facilities in semi urban and rural centre. Special incentives for technology companies developing healthcare infrastructure and tele-health platform to help connect rural patients with doctors in urban centre in form of subsidised financial packages will help companies like Healthenablr to expand into semi-urban and rural markets.”

Anjani Kumar, CEO, SuccessWrks

“At a broader level, I would like the Budget to address all the issues which are being talked about for quite some time now but are yet to reach the point of closure. Amongst all, tax reforms especially GST, generation of jobs, action plans for skill development, upliftment of rural India and FDI in more sectors clearly need immediate focus. One sector where I have great expectations is in the area of start-ups. While Start-up India has clearly shown the intention of the Government in this area, the Budget needs to follow it up with an action plan and clearly implementable rules around all the announcements. Taxability of angel investments and stopping the flight of start-ups outside India must be addressed.”

BhavinTurakhia, CEO and Co-founder, Directi

• “Addressing the talent crunch by investing massively on creating skilled/ technical labour: The Government should look to incentivise companies that work with educational institutions to raise quality of talent.
• Enacting regulations that ensure the optimal utilisation of the USO Fund: This should be to overcome the infrastructure barrier and to enhance the reach of broadband connectivity in rural/ upcountry locations so that the common public can reap the benefits of connectivity and digital tool.
• More spending to overcome the language barrier that people face in adoption of online technologies: Also announce a framework for the app that makes it easier for start-ups and entrepreneurs to build their base in the country and moreover in upcountry locations.
• Liberalising and decentralising of telecom: This is another area in which the government can and should be creating avenues that will facilitate growth for the industry and economy at large.”

Sanjay Krishna Goel, Founder & MD, ACL Mobile

“With substantial focus on start-up and digital India, there still exist obstacles like costs, procedural complexities and delays at large. To empower the digital savvy mission for the Tier 2-3 and beyond cities, we look forward to policies and Budget allocations, including subsidies for channelising the infrastructural development and Internet penetration. As a part of the telecom sector, we believe that it is essential to rightly comprehend the Digital India vision by the Government and contribute towards achieving the same in line with the Budget.”

Manavjeet Singh, Founder & CEO, Rubique

“Start-up India action plan has showcased some signs of encouragement for the start-up ecosystem and from this year Budget, too, we expect similar positive support from the Government. For any start-up, ease of starting a business is crucial. We need a supportive environment on compliance front to reduce the paperwork so the founder can execute his idea faster. Also, tax holidays/ exemption on service tax in initial years would help start-ups to deploy their funds effectively to make their foundation stronger. Also, there should be smooth process of deployment of funds Government has reserved for start-up. This would definitely encourage the promising entrepreneur community in India.”

Kumar Karpe, CEO, TechProcess Payment Services, India

“Boost to start-ups – Consumption powered by digital payments: The Start-up India programme announced by the Government is certainly a welcome step towards safeguarding and supporting stakeholder interests and concerns. In this context, the digital payments enablers should not be considered in isolation and incentives should be provided across the spectrum. One should remember that the rapid consumption of services offered by start-ups is dependent to a very significant level on the convenience and security proposition offered by the digital payment services. Today, for the first time, we can say that digital money has out piped its counterpart cash and we hope that Union Budget has a positive outlook towards facilitating this further.

Smart city & Smart payments: India’s efforts towards The Smart City mission is welcome and an immensely positive steps towards growth. While the focus on is on enabling and optimising infrastructure requirements such as water management, smart grid, etc., digital payments too should find a mention and consideration in the Smart City ecosystem as these will further help in optimising the resources spent on cash management, logistics to name few. Municipal tax collection, Traffic fines, utility payments, transfer of subsidies, etc. are just some of the examples where digital payments should be made mandatory to check leakages and thereby cities to provide better facilities for its residents. The Union Budget should provide the push for enhanced penetration of digital payments in the smart city landscape.

Increasing payment acceptance network in India: The new-age digital payments are not merely based on the proposition of convenience; financial inclusion too can be made possible by embracing digital payments in a big way. The upcoming Union Budget presents an ideal opportunity to step up the movement towards this and we hope a provision will be made to incentivise the adoption and usage of digital payments by banks and consumer alike. Today, we convert approx Rs 215,000 crore of digital money into cash by ATM withdrawals. This is the immediate potential at hand for anybody to increase the acceptance network of both Person to Person and Person to Merchant payments.

Jan DhanYogna: It is ironical that while India rapidly surges to emerge as an economic superpower, financial inclusion sill remains a distant dream. The Jan DhanYojna augurs well for overcoming this mammoth challenge. However, relying merely on the conventional sources of banking will limit India’s success on this front. We hope the upcoming Union Budget enhances the overall business proposition for the new-age banking services enablers such as payment gateway service providers by way of incentives for Person to Person payments and tax incentives or rebates on its R&D costs.

Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers

“Outdoor advertising is primarily dependent on the infrastructure of the country. Good roads, flyovers, sky-rises, public transport, utility spaces... all of these contribute towards the development of the advertising industry. With Our government's promises on “Development”, we hope to see a larger picture of the  government's “Make in India” project. We wish to see speedy action on the development of Smart cities and bullet trains. With this budget, we hope there is generation of better opportunities for entrepreneurs, more jobs for the youth and less pressure on our pockets.”

Mr. Abraham Thomas- CEO, Radio City 91.1FM

“The announcement of introducing FM Radio at Railway stations is a feather in the cap for the radio industry. It is a pioneering step taken for radio to reach out to a larger audience and garner a high response.  About 68% of FM listeners have radio enabled mobile handsets and consumption of FM during commute is very high. This would be an opportunity for all FM Stations to provide customized entertainment to the travellers.”