From Ease Of Doing Business To Tax Benefits And Setting Up Fund, Start-ups Laud Budget 2023

The initiatives announced for start-ups in Budget 2023 augur well for the growth of the vibrant start-up ecosystem in India besides promoting entrepreneurship and job creation

Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday presented the last full Budget of Modi 2.0 government ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The Union Budget 23 made an attempt to address the concerns of each sector including start-ups in the country.

The several initiatives announced for start-ups in Budget 2023 augur well for the growth of the vibrant start-up ecosystem in India besides promoting entrepreneurship and job creation.

The Budget 2023 proposed to extend income tax benefits from March 31, 2023 to March 31, 2024. It also extended the benefit of carry-forward of losses from 7 years to 10 years. More than 39,000 compliances have been reduced and 3,400 legal provisions have been decriminalised.

Start-ups hailed the measures announced in the Budget which they expected will boost entrepreneurship. “It is heartening to see the FM further the cause of entrepreneurship in the budget. The financial benefits offered as part of tax exemptions is a welcome step in the same direction,” said Khushboo Aggarwal, founder, Zyla Health, personalised care management platform.

"The extension of incorporation date for tax exemption would enable newly incorporated start-ups to take advantage of tax exemptions as part of the Startup India/DPIIT policy and would motivate more people to take the entrepreneurship plunge," said Pawan Gupta, chief technology officer at SkillsCapital, on-demand talent marketplace. "The increase in carry forward time for losses would provide more time for the startups to offset their losses which are generally high in the initial years and would provide them an even field for investment,” added Gupta.  

The Budget also announced deploying 100 commissioners for small appeals, to be more selective in scrutiny.

“Disposal of small appeals at the Joint Commissioner level would save entrepreneuers considerable time and would allow entrepreneurs to spend more time on focus on what they do best - build, grow and scale their business, explained Gupta of SkillsCapital.

"Extending income tax benefits to startups incorporated till March 2024, and other such initiatives for startups shows the thought that has been given behind this enormous budget catering to every sector of Indian economy. These initiatives will surely boost the overall morale of young Indian entrepreneurs in order to contribute to the growth of the country," said Chetan Rexwal, co-founder, Ekank Technologies. 

Presenting the 'Amrit Kaal' Budget, FM Sitharaman said that the government will promote agriculture based start-ups. An Agriculture Accelerator Fund to be set up to encourage agritech start-ups. Entrepreneurs to bring innovative and affordable solutions for farmers’ challenges, will also enhance profitability and bring modern technology.

“Digital public infrastructure for agriculture enabling an open source, open standard, and interoperable public good encompassing farmer-centric solutions. This will definitely help improve access to farm inputs for the farmers whilst also boosting market intelligence, thereby also providing support to agritech and start-up growth,” said Karthik Jayaraman, Co-Founder and MD, WayCool Foods.

"The agriculture sector despite being the major contributor to the GDP is still faced with a plethora of challenges,  and the launch of the Agriculture Accelerator fund will provide ample relief to the industry," believe agritech start-ups. The fund will encourage young entrepreneurs towards the sector while bringing in innovative and affordable solutions to address the challenges faced by the farmers, especially in terms of enhancing profitability and equipping modern technology, added Jayaraman.

“"The announcements around the setting up of agriculture accelerator fund, making digital infrastructure for agriculture, computerization of primary agricultural credit societies, setting up of the AI centres etc are measures towards supporting technology adoption and promoting digitisation of agriculture at scale," said Dhruv Sawhney, COO and Business Head, Nurture.farm.