Jan 27, 2023

Bipin, Preet Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, MobiKwik- India’s Leading Fintech Company ”The Indian government is ahead of the curve when it comes to promoting entrepreneurship and startups but there are some additional measures that could further bolster the growth of the Indian startup ecosystem. For example, there is a need to address the current taxation regime imposed on ESOPs. While Employee Stock Ownership Plans(ESOPs) get treated as a perquisite and are taxable as income under head salaries, they also get counted as capital gains when sold in the market, compelling employees to pay an additional tax in line with their tax slab. Doing away with this dual taxation in the upcoming budget will help startups retain quality talent, thereby going a long way in further boosting the startup ecosystem in India.” Vikas Garg, Co-founder and CEO, Paytail. “The budget for 2023-24 is going to play a pro-active role to pave the way for the growth of fintechs aligned with the growth of MSMEs where digital expansion takes a centre stage. Fintech companies are navigating the country’s path towards financial inclusion, where the robust techstack in combination with the strong distribution network is going to ensure the availability of financial products across the country. As one of the players operating in the fintech environment, we are hoping for tax subsidies, that would support more investment in the fintech sector, thus facilitating creation of innovative technologies for better credit provision. In terms of regulation, a dedicated regulatory body for fintech domain would give a more extensive idea in terms of formulation of credit policies to ensure proper risk management and reduce delinquencies. Also, as India outperforms global growth of digital transactions, investing heavily in the same can prove to be fruitful in terms of providing credit to underserved and untapped business instituitions and individuals.” Sousthav Chakrabarthy, Co-Founder & CEO, Siply “The increasing cost of living, rising inflation and the lingering effect of the global pandemic has impacted the middle class and the lower middle class the hardest and savings have taken a hit. Indians are feeling the pinch and putting lesser and lesser amounts in the piggy bank, and this is a huge cause of concern for the Indian economy. We expect the Budget 2023-24 to address this situation by providing some tax relief to the salaried class, bringing down the cost of goods and essential services to control inflation and increasing the limit under Section 80C. Overall, the upcoming budget should be geared towards creating a savings and an investment-oriented economy. Additionally, while the Indian government has taken several measures to give startups the impetus to grow, further measures are needed. For one, we expect an increase in the angel investor pool at the seed stage and a tax relief on Angel tax which wipes away a significant part of the surplus that startups need for their growth.” Pratekk Aggarwal Managing partner-Growthcap Ventures “Startups by design are different and its time the govt needs to treat them differently then regular businesses. The problems the startup founders are solving for and the risk they take are quite different and expectations from the budget is that govt should support the startups, founders, employees and investors by taking a 360-degree view in developing an ecosystem that supports growth of the community. The top issues for me are mostly related to the simplification of the definition of eligible startups , taxations on the employee ESOPs and Angel tax and lastly the tax treatment of Angel Investors gains if any from investments in startups as these are more risky asset class compared to others.” Vineet Founder & CEO, Castler India has wholeheartedly embraced digital payments, and as we push for a cashless economy, there is a need to promote services that can help build a secure digital transacting ecosystem. One such service that needs attention in the upcoming budget is Digital Escrow which can play a pivotal role in building trust in digital payments for various use cases. I also hope that the upcoming union budget will bring measures to ease the financial burden on startups, like reducing taxes with no GST until Rs 10 crore turnover annually and introducing greater tax breaks for depreciation on fixed assets, reducing angel tax to promote seed stage investments and doing away with dual taxation on ESOPs. Furthermore, the upcoming budget should further incentivise the development of made-in-India software products, and the GST rate of 18% on the same should be reduced to help indigenous software creators flourish in the domestic and international markets