One sector that is closely watching the Union Budget is the startup sector. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi made several key announcements at the government’s ambitious Startup India initiative early this year to boost entrepreneurship in the country, industry players are now hoping for those to get implemented at the earliest.

The government has been proactive in solving issues hindering growth of several thousands entrepreneurs, but these players want more clarity on the laws and regulations related to online and internet companies.

Goods and Services Tax From implementation of Goods and Services Tax to simplifying tax laws to easy capital-raising norms, the startup players are batting for a uniform tax regime across the country. At present, every state has a different sales tax structure which is posing difficulties for ecommerce players delivering across the country. GST will turn the country into a single market with reduced transaction costs for businesses and help control the economic volatility.

Besides, the startups are also seeking more exemptions on income-tax and the abolishment of complex tax filing structures.

Archit Gupta, founder of ClearTax.in, said that the Budget is expected to be largely a business-focussed one.

“Hopefully, GST shall be passed and will pave the way for ease of doing inter-state business. Reforms announced during the Startup India campaign will take shape and form and we expect the term ‘startup’ to make an entry into the Income-Tax Act,” he added.

Public transport Samar Singla, founder of auto aggregator Jugnoo, expects the government to invest more in public transport infrastructure, providing much-needed impetus to several players in the travel aggregator space, including Ola and Uber.

Shankar Nath, Senior Vice-President of Paytm, which is into mobile payments, said, “I hope the Budget continues on the path of fiscal consolidation.

“India is a beacon of growth and stability in an otherwise troubled global outlook. We expect the Budget to invest significantly in strengthening the digital infrastructure of the country. It is crucial that we develop a high bandwidth.”

Budget smartphones The company, which is also a marketplace like Flipkart and Snapdeal, expects tax breaks on budget smartphones which support regional languages.

“Tier”-II and III cities and rural India thrive on smartphones, and have contributed significantly to productivity. The more the smartphone penetration, the higher will be the levels of entrepreneurship we will see,” Nath said.

Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder and CEO of Droom, also echoed the views of Nath and said the government should subsidise smartphones to aid the growth of the ecommerce market with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 40 per cent.

“Buying a smartphone is much easier than buying a desktop/laptop. The current Tier-II and III cities and rural India thrive on these devices… It may give rise to evolution of many new enterprises in these smaller towns,” Aggarwal added.

Among other demands is a robust network of affordable internet across India through public private participation with telecom operators.

“The same is the key to internet growth; unless our telecom providers do not fuel our masses with bandwidth and affordability, Digital India would be a distant dream,” Aggarwal added.

eKYC will be the way forward that will further improve the ease-of-doing business in India. The startups expect the government to introduce measures besides some basic elements required to starting a business, getting electricity, paying taxes, enforcing contracts and access to credit. At present, one of the major deterrents is lack of access to capital.

Also, the major ecommerce players, who are at the moment running as marketplaces in the country, are looking for a 100-per cent FDI for ecommerce wherein the foreign investors can make strategic investments in smaller online retailers. This will also aid in the growth of improving the logistics and warehousing capabilities for the ecommerce players.

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