New Delhi: The pandemic has led to innovation by start-ups and new-age technology companies, and it is quite evident that the trend will only pick up in 2022 as well. India's start-up ecosystem has raked up investment to the tune of nearly $36 billion in privately held companies in 2021, as demand for digitisation grew manifold amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
With an aim to take the start-up culture to the remote areas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently declared that January 16 to be celebrated as 'National Start-up Day'. With the global health emergency hitting economies, the start-up space has several expectations from the upcoming Union Budget 2022-23.
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Some start-ups are looking for rationalising of taxes in consumer durables items. “With the budget approaching we expect the government to rationalise the tax slabs for the consumer durables besides promoting R&D and provide incentives for the local manufacturers. With Covid-19 affecting the supply and demand both, the industry seeks support from the government. We are expecting more items to be brought under 18 per cent tax slab,” said Candes, a home appliance brand, Vipin Agarwal, co-founder - Consumer Durables.
“In the upcoming budget, we are hopeful that the government would continue extending its valuable support as initiated in the first term with the implementation of uniform GST, 'Make in India', besides offering a host of other initiatives that would help industries to come back to the platforms," said VingaJoy, Gadget Accessory and Consumer Electronics brand.
Women led start-ups are also looking at measures to create ecosystem by introducing tax incentives such as standard deduction, and easy accessibility of funds, especially for early-age women run ventures that have less than 10 employees. “This will give an impetus to the overall community, allowing every woman entrepreneur to be financially empowered by these solutions," said Shruti Aggarwal, co-founder, Stashfin, digital lending start-up.
While the logistics start-ups are looking at effective implementation of National Logistics Policy besides other initiatives. "In order to give the important- demanded impetus, the industry is awaiting policy support and duty relaxations that will help inoculate investment particularly on technology and make India’s logistics industry more competitive,” said WareIQ, Harsh Vaidya, Founder & CEO, e-commerce fulfillment and shipping company.
“We expect the Union Budget to strengthen the technology, R&D especially in the Location Intelligence industry. There should be a stronger push towards the policies promoting innovation and data driven economy, added Ashwani Rawat, Founder, Transerve Techologistics, a location intelligence firm.
On the other hand, the fashion start-ups are expecting the government to improve the disposable income of the consumers as well as the reduction in GST rates of readymade clothings. “Current GST rates of readymade clothes that cost above Rs 1,000 fall under the category of 12 per cent and the government should bring it down to 5 per cent. In addition to tax rate reduction, easier compliance and simplification of taxes are two of the major expectations of the functional fashion start-ups in the market. Moreover, the prime motive of the government should be to empower both skilled and unskilled employees, said Kapil Bhatia of UNIREC, an Ecommerce & Retail (sustainable fashion).
Digital lending start-ups are expecting that the government will bring game-changing reforms, new policies, and regulations that will offer relief and tax sops to MSMEs and the overall startup ecosystem. "In 2022, we expect that the government to focus more on the development of digital infrastructure to enhance customer experiences, credit quality, and streamline the growth of financial entities in FY22-23," said Vineet Tyagi, Global CTO of Biz2X, a digital lending firm.